Only Half the Time
by phoenixyfriend
Summary: Tony has a kid. Well... sort of. They're family, anyway. The problem is, he only sees the kid half the time... so obviously, he needs to make the most of what time he has.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I know I already have one fic that has some glaring similarities to this, but this idea wouldn't leave me alone. Also, I've been reading a ton of Avengers fics recently. Of course there were going to be repercussions.**

o.o.o.o.o

_Prologue_

o.o.o.o.o

They all noticed it, over the course of the scant few days they had been together. Stark was _twitchy_, and while he denied that anything was wrong, the lies were… actually pretty transparent, compared to everything else.

Coulson just remembered how apologetic Pepper Potts had looked when he'd stopped by to pick up Stark.

_"There have been a few… _issues_ recently. Don't get too worried if he spends a lot of time asking JARVIS for updates on unrelated things. He's just worried about something."_

Bruce had personally noticed those requests, even if he hadn't been warned beforehand about them. Given how JARVIS updated Tony hourly, it was hard to miss.

_"Still no sign, Sir. And yes, he's three weeks overdue now."_

Steve had mostly noticed the issues that Tony's anxiety had caused in the teamwork.

"_Listen, Stark, I don't know what's going on in your personal life, but we've got an entire planet to save, so you better focus, or I _will_ get Fury to kick you out._"

Fury had just paid attention for a few scant seconds whenever Tony blew up a bit, but didn't bother addressing it.

_"If it's not impacting his work, then he can have his computers running all the damn side projects he wants."_

Natasha was the one that had noticed the baggy eyes, but didn't comment. She'd seen Tony work himself through many a sleepless night back when she'd been Natalie Rushman. She was also one of the few that knew what the problem _actually_ _was_.

_"This wasn't what I expected when you told me you wanted me to meet someone, Mr. Stark."_

Barely an hour after Germany, once Thor had joined the group, things finally came to a head. It was a lucky thing that Bruce was running scans in the lab, or the Hulk may have just made an appearance at a very, very inopportune moment.

o.o.o.o.o

Tony swore loudly, clapping a hand to the back of his neck and stumbling against the desk.

"Stark?" Despite the arguments they'd had so far, Steve wasn't one to miss the signs of something serious. "What are you—?"

Tony ignored him, doing his level best to tear off his shirt and catch a look at what appeared to be a glowing tattoo on his back, circular and roughly three inches across, with Japanese writing all over it. Everyone seemed confused and worried… except for one Natasha Romanoff.

"Is it him?" The question was a simple one, and though there was no information regarding who the 'him' in question was, Tony seemed to understand.

"_Obviously_." Tony ground out. "Do you have a knife?"

The question, of course, brought still more yelling.

"Stark, are you _insane—_"

"—that whatever you're thinking of doing is _not—"_

"—anoff, what the hell is going on with—"

"—know that Midgardians are prone to such—"

Once again, there was only one calm response.

"Of course I do." Natasha wasted no time in digging out a knife from some hidden place and tossing it to Tony. It was small, a pocketknife with an unusually sharp blade and nothing more. "I'm guessing he's in trouble."

"No shit." Tony groused, and a second later he was using the knife to slit his thumb (and his subconscious told him that the back of his hand would be safer, less painful, but the thumb was one of those stupid traditions that he'd picked up, and besides, it was a little more accurate for what he needed to do). "Nine weeks with no communication, and then _this_."

With an awkward movement, Tony pressed his bloody thumb up against the tattoo on his back, smearing it across. Natasha was still watching calmly, and Thor seemed to have realized something if the look on his face was any indication, but it didn't really matter, because just a second later there was an unusually large puff of smoke that made Tony vanish from sight.

The smoke cleared quickly, but the clicks of approximately three dozen guns being drawn and primed were nonetheless clearly heard. Within the dispersing cloud of smoke were four new figures, and the guns stayed up even when the battle wounds were revealed.

"You _idiot_." Tony stepped forward, and no one at SHIELD had ever seen him like this, all worry and anger, not even Natasha. "What the hell did you get yourself into?"

The tallest of them shifted uneasily (and a few people noted that the person was taller than even Thor, though thankfully not quite of the Hulk's stature), and moved into a hesitant but resigned stance, most likely in preparation for some kind of brawling. One of the other figures could be seen leaning heavily on… on a _sword_ of all things, larger than any that most of the room's occupants had ever seen. The final pair of the interlopers sat on the floor, and as the smoke dispersed fully, they were revealed completely: an unconscious girl in the lap of a boy with a look bordering on desperation on his face.

The boy on the ground had eyes only for Tony, who refused to falter, though his attention was now diverted to the girl that was quickly bleeding out over SHIELD's floors, and covered in strange burns.

Tony's voice shifted, and he began speaking a language only a handful of people in the room understood. "_What do you need?"_

The boy's eyes were bleeding red, but the color faded quickly. He suddenly looked exhausted, but his voice still rang with desperation.

"_Help her."_

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Characters should be obvious, though I dumped you all **_**in medias res**_**. The story proper will go chronologically, though, from the first **_**actual**_** meeting.**

**Also, I always have a strange urge to write any and all Avengers fics in present tense. It's an annoying thing to edit.**

**This story was partially inspired by a number of Parent!Tony stories I've read recently. The full situation here is going to be explained soon, including any apparent OOC-ness.**

**Hope you stick around.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	2. The Letter

**May 12, 2012  
>3:32 PM<br>Helicarrier**

By the time everything was taken care of, the Avengers were all settled around a table, with Fury, Hill, and Coulson at the head, staring them down with varying levels of anger and exasperation.

"What the hell is that kid doing here, Stark?" Director Fury finally asked, after several minutes of rather _interesting_ looks had been passed around the table.

"And who is he?" Steve Rogers asked, if rather tentatively. Had Tony been hiding information from everybody, he would have pressed much harder. Given that Fury seemed to already know and not care about the fact that the information wasn't public knowledge, however... "Am I the only one that doesn't know?"

"No, I'm going to have to say that there are a few others that haven't met him either." Phil Coulson was looking around the table with muted interest, the usual bland smile on his face.

"Well, Fury, Natasha, and Bruce know him." Tony leaned back in his seat and ticked of his fingers. "So does Clint, but he's MIA for the moment, so he doesn't count."

"So Loki knows about the kid?" Fury demanded. "If he gets his hands on one of-"

"He won't. Three of them have defenses against his kind of mind control, and the last is too injured to bother with." Tony laughed, then, much calmer than he'd been at any point in the past several weeks. "And, well, back to what I said earlier... he's technically met everyone here except... I'm sorry, what was your name? Jill?"

"Agent Hill." The woman told him, unimpressed, but soldiering on. "If they've met, then why don't any of the people you mentioned-"

"Recognize him?" Tony interrupted, spinning a pen between his fingers. "Good question. Simple answer. He was disguised when he met Thor, Cap, and Agent. Made himself look like his older cousin. Curly hair. Weird eyeliner. Less of a stick up his ass."

Natasha pursed her lips, hidden behind one hand, almost hiding a smile.

"And yet you still do not deign to inform us as to who the Midgardian child is." Thor wasn't _glaring_, per se, but he seemed a little unhappy.

"Well... he's my kid. Sort of. We're related, anyway." Tony spun in his chair. "His mother is my first cousin, and I've been raising him since he was seven, after the rest of the family was wiped out. Bruce and Natasha met him at my place because reasons, and Fury knows about him because Natasha needed to report to someone about his existence and I didn't trust SHIELD enough to let any files exist on him, so the deal was just hammered out that Fury would know whatever Natasha told him, and I'd get to keep my little cousin's anonymity so that I wouldn't have people trying to kidnap him for ransoms and the like."

"That still doesn't explain how or why he just appeared in the middle of the Helicarrier looking half dead with a team that _was_ almost half dead." Agent Hill pointed out.

Tony made a face. "Well, maybe it's better if I start from the beginning."

o.o.o.o.o

**2003**

Tony Stark hadn't ever _really_ thought about kids, beyond a few small things that generally went along the lines of:

1. They were icky, gooey, snotty things that weren't allowed in the workshop unless they happened to be as much of a childhood genius as he was (very, very unlikely) and knew not to distract him or touch anything (even less likely).

2. He should probably have one at some point, because having an heir for the company was apparently a "thing" that he needed to do for some reason. That would necessitate getting married first, because stocks would drop if he had an illegitimate child or hired a surrogate (and he didn't really feel like dealing with the board members bitching about the stocks _again_), and since he wasn't really interested in getting married anytime soon anyway, he was even less prepared for a child.

3. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he was terrified that he would be as bad of a father as Howard Stark had been, and didn't ever want to subject a kid to that. For all his faults, Tony _did_ actually care about kids, especially the ones that hypothetically happened to be his.

Altogether, this led to Tony being extremely averse to the idea of having kids. This type of thinking lasted until he was roughly thirty-two years old.

That was because, in the year 2003, Tony somehow managed to gain custody of a relative he had only vaguely been aware might have existed at all.

...At least the board couldn't complain about that.

Especially when no one told them.

o.o.o.o.o

**March 24, 2003  
>2:03 AM<br>Malibu**

Tony was in Malibu, typing away at a computer in an attempt to clear his head so that he could get some sleep before working on a new missile, when the tapping started. Unfortunately, it was loud and strange enough that he could in no way mistake it for the noise of the keys he was hitting, as it could only be the sound of something hard hitting the window.

He turned around to look out at the darkness that was outside the glass, and couldn't find the source of the noise for several seconds. Then he spotted it.

A bird.

More specifically, a hawk.

Even more specifically, a hawk with a scroll tied to its leg.

"Uh... well, uh, that's new." Tony stared at the bird for a few more seconds, and then at the scroll attached to its leg. The bird, if possible, looked rather annoyed. The scroll, to Tony, looked like a possible bomb.

"JARVIS?" Okay, so he hadn't perfected the AI yet, but the scanners he'd installed could, hopefully, help him out here.

"Yes, sir?"

"The scroll on that bird, do you know if there's anything on it that might... explode? Can you check? I think I gave you infrared, right?" Tony was pretty sure the bird was looking at him with something approaching derision now, which was slightly ridiculous, because this was ridiculous.

"There are no detectable explosives in the scroll, Sir." JARVIS answered, sounding just the slightest bit exasperated. Well... that was probably Tony's fault for programming a personality in.

"Okay, so... _probably_ safe to open. Still a chance it could blow up." Tony thought it over for several seconds, and then hopped over the back of the couch and opened the window, letting the hawk in. "Well, being careful never got me anywhere before; let's see what this baby's packing."

There were several seconds of silence, and then Tony gave his in-house AI yet another order. "JARVIS, buddy, can you scan this in and translate it? I don't speak Japanese. Or read it."

"Of course, sir."

Tony's face had been set in a neutral expression when he grabbed and opened the scroll, and even a bit amused when he asked JARVIS to translate the letter, but reading the letter itself lead him into an expression of rare incredulity.

_Mr. Anthony Stark,_

_According to existing records, you are the sole child of the Maria Stark. The woman in question was once Mariko Uchiha, a citizen of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, of the Land of Fire. She belonged to the Uchiha clan, which was rather large and powerful._

"Yeah, okay, I know all this already. Mom didn't talk about it much, but she did mention it a few times. Why bother contacting me now?" Tony rubbed the back of his neck, turning violently away from the words that were still being projected on the wall.

(He really needed to spend some more time working on getting those hologram prototypes to work. He was near a breakthrough; he just _knew_ it.)

"Sir?"

"I'm fine, JARVIS." Tony muttered. "Just... not memories I wanted brought up. I'll keep reading in a minute." It took several moments, but Tony managed to force himself to continue reading.

_Due to a recent tragedy, the entirety of the Uchiha clan barring two has been murdered._

Tony blinked for a second. He blinked again. "_What?!"_

"Sir?"

"I'm fine, JARVIS!" Tony brought a hand up to his head. He kind of hoped this was some horrible prank gone wrong, but he doubted it. His mother hadn't exactly been _open_ about where she'd come from, considering... well, considering that the entire continent was supposed to be one big secret.

"Okay, okay, fine. So, everyone's dead except two. They're telling me because... next of kin, maybe? I might be more closely related by blood than the remaining two, but I don't really think they'd contact me just for that." Tony pressed his face into his hands, walking around aimlessly for a minute. He didn't want to look. He knew the answers were in the letter, probably, but... urgh. He turned around, steeling himself to continue reading.

_One of the two surviving clan members has fled the country and become an internationally wanted fugitive, as all evidence points to him being the sole perpetrator of the tragedy._

"...Oh, you have got to be kidding me." So, Tony probably only survived whatever this was because he was on the other side of the world and only, what, a quarter Uchiha? His mom had been half, and that half was what had lead to her being considered 'too weak' for the clan because of some stupid eye thing that had made her need glasses anyway, which was why she left _in the first place_...

Never mind. Back to the letter.

_The other, Sasuke Uchiha, is the son of your first cousin, Mikoto Uchiha. As he is currently only seven years old, and you are his sole living relative without criminal charges leveled against them by the Village Hidden in the Leaves, you have the right to claim the role of his official guardian, should you choose to accept such. Your answer would be appreciated as soon as possible._

_Sincerely,_

_Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Fire Shadow_

Tony stared at the paper in his hands for a few seconds, and then spoke to JARVIS in a deceptively calm, but tellingly strained, voice. "JARVIS, pull up any old letters and pictures that my mom had of her family."

Within minutes, Tony had the 'tree' set up, or as set up as he needed it to be. Tony's mother had been Mariko 'Maria' Stark nee Uchiha. Her mother had been Ariko Uchiha. Ariko's mother and father had been Keiko Uchiha and Hansuke Kaneko. Ariko's brother, also a child of Keiko and Hansuke, had been Shuichi. Shuichi's daughter had been Mikoto. Mikoto had no recorded children in any of the letters, but that was likely due to the fact that Maria had died before any information on that front could be exchanged.

So, for the most part, the _information_ in the letter checked out.

Tony looked at the bird. He wondered how long it would stay around, because this was something he _definitely_ needed to discuss with Obadiah first. Maybe Rhodey, too. Even Pepper's input would be helpful. And the board would need to...

No.

No, the board could _not_ be informed.

Scratch that, _no one_ would be told about any of this other than Obie, Rhodey, and maybe Pepper. Pepper had been working for him directly for about five years now, but did he really trust her that much?

...Yes. Yes, he trusted her enough. Barely, but even that was an incredible amount, for him.

Okay, so, those three would be asked, and it would all be done in person, in the house.

o.o.o.o.o

**March 25, 2003  
>5:14 PM<br>Malibu**

"You can't adopt a kid, Tony. You can barely take care of yourself." Obadiah put a hand on Tony's shoulder, trying to get his point across.

"It's not an adoption, Obie. He's my cousin's kid, apparently, so that kind of makes him my responsibility now." Tony stared at the floor, fingers laced together under his chin.

"That doesn't change the fact that you have a company to run, Tony, and you don't have the time for a kid. That kid would be left alone all the time, and... come on, Tony, you remember what happened with your dad, right? It's just not a good environment for a kid." The older man drew back, but the words had already hit home.

"I am _not_ going to be like my father." Tony turned his glare on the man that had played the role of father-figure to him for the past decade and a half. "I've got plenty of bullshit I'm already wasting time on, I can cut back on that instead."

"I think it's a good idea." Pepper offered, though she bit her lip and leaned back in her seat a bit when the men in the room turned their gazes on her. "Look, it's obvious that Tony wants this, and I'm willing to help arrange for tutors or school or whatever needs to be done on that front, and I know I can work the extra time into his schedule. If Tony thinks he's responsible enough for this, then I'm willing to support him through it and force him into doing what he's supposed to do if he slips up. I'll even work on processing profiles for bodyguards and the like with as little room for rumors as possible, since Tony wants to keep it all quiet."

"Thanks, Pepper." Tony smiled at her. Well, that was a good choice in PA. The choice had been reaffirmed near daily since she'd started anyway, but this was a good reminder. "Rhodey, what about you? You've been quiet so far."

The man in question looked up, and Tony felt his heart drop a bit at the conflicted expression that was now visible. "I'd be on your side normally, Tony, but... if the kid's entire extended family was murdered, he probably saw at least a part of it. The rest, I'm sure you could deal with, but if the kid's got PTSD, then you might be out of your depth. You don't know how to deal with that sort of thing."

The man brought up a good point, Tony thought as his eyes went back to looking at the ground. Though, the kid would be seeing psychologists anyway, right? Might as well make sure they were the best psychologists money could buy.

"...Does anyone? I can make sure the kid gets better care for it than whatever orphanage or foster care they put him in if I don't, right? Hell, I'm one of the richest men in the _world_, Rhodey. All that money ought to be put towards _something_ useful other than fast cars and new tech." Tony tried to explain, and by the look on Rhodey's face, he got through.

"If you really think so, Tony." Rhodey's words seemed dubious, but the tone made it clear that he was a bit more open to the idea now that Tony was trying to come up with solutions to the various problems they were presenting with actual ideas, and not jokes.

So, Tony counted: Obadiah no, Pepper yes, Rhodey on the fence but leaning towards yes. Obadiah's opinion counted more than Pepper's, but Rhodey's was almost equal to Obadiah, and that meant that, since Tony had decided that he definitely wanted to 'adopt' the kid...

"Looks like there's going to be someone new in Stark Manor. JARVIS, I've got a letter for you to write. Get ready to start translating."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: A few of the more eagle-eyed viewers have probably noticed that the "modern" setting (the actual Avengers movie) is actually over a year off. This is **_**intentional**_**. I've been using an online timeline (which I will link to on my profile at some point) as a reference sheet for the Avengers universe, as well as my own knowledge of the Naruto universe to cobble together something that functionally works its way into both worlds while keeping all the preset conditions I introduced in the first chapter. Unlike every other story I've written, I actually have a structured timeline written out in a word document on file, and it is four pages long and growing all the time as I make contingency plans and new decisions.**

**Basically, I'm putting a lot of effort into this, so try not to make any wild accusations yet. Everything will be explained in time, including the Shisui-faking that Tony mentioned and some stuff that seems OOC (but is actually the result of different events taking place).**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	3. The Masked Man

**May 12, 2012  
>3:42 PM<br>Helicarrier**

"So you've had the kid for... nearly a decade now?" Agent Coulson tried to clarify. "That's a pretty long time to keep a kid a secret."

Tony chuckled, though even that sounded sarcastic. "Oh, Agent, Agent, Agent... You really think he spent all his time with me? You saw what he looked like back there. Do you really think I would have let that happen if I'd been able to stop it?"

Agent Coulson blinked. "You said he was from the Elemental Nations."

"Yep."

"Shinobi?"

"Unfortunately."

"And you couldn't do anything?"

"By the time I found out, well..."

o.o.o.o.o

**March 29, 2003  
>8:53 PM<br>Malibu**

The letter was sent, and no reply received. Tony started worrying that maybe he'd been judged an unfit guardian because of the tabloid stories and other well-known issues. He'd never had any reason to properly want a kid before, but recent events had forced him to reevaluate a few things, including his lifestyle. If he was going to be raising a kid, he was going to have to cut back on his less reputable habits. Drinking and sleeping around were things that he had _fun_ doing, and it helped him forget all the shittier parts of his life, but such well-known vices were sure to be scored against him when it came to his suitability as a guardian. Tony was actually rather scared that he wasn't getting a reply because the people from the Village Hidden in the Leaves had decided he wasn't good enough.

Pepper reminded him that the communication method of choice appeared to be carrier hawk, and that any communication method that relied on a _bird _was more than a little liable to be slower than he was used to.

Tony calmed down a lot after that.

(He wouldn't _stop_ drinking and sleeping around, but if he had to cut something out of his schedule in order to make time for the kid that would soon be his, then it wasn't allowed to be the inventing, and probably wasn't allowed to be the board meetings.)

(The kid came first; Tony would _not_ be his father.)

(Hell, Tony was even trying to learn Japanese, though languages were _not_ his forte. He could become an expert on new scientific fields overnight, but languages took a little longer.)

He was in the middle of working on one of his cars when JARVIS alerted him to the fact that someone unauthorized had managed to get into the house, and was invisible to some of his sensors.

Tony figured that was probably a bad thing. "Kill the lights, except one over wherever this person is. Let them know that we know they're here, and just... ask them to stay put until I get there."

"Yes, sir."

Tony glanced to his left at all the weapons that were laid out on the tables, some finished, others not, and then sighed and grabbed one of the finished pistols, loading it. "I hate using these."

"You are the one that created them, sir."

"I know, J, I know. Doesn't mean I have to like using them." He really preferred less... mundane weaponry. Remote-controlled and tracking projectiles were much better. He knew how to shoot, of course, and was actually an incredibly good shot, but... guns were just so _crude_.

Tony hefted the gun in his palm, making a face, and kept it lowered to his side as he made his way up the stairs.

The sight that greeted him at the top of the stairs was one that was rather... confusing. A person with silver hair, some sort of uniform, and a white mask with red markings on it.

The man, slouching where he stood in a single beam of light, raised a hand and waved it at Tony. "Yo."

Tony was still tense, but he thought he maybe knew what was going on now. "JARVIS? Bring up the translation program again, on the wall. English to Japanese and back."

"At once, sir." JARVIS answered.

The man in the light didn't visibly react in surprise as most people did when faced with JARVIS for the first time, which, even with the mask, Tony found impressive.

"So, man in the mask, who are you? Why are you here? Mind taking the mask off? Etcetera, etcetera, just talk to me a bit." Tony gestured lackadaisically with the gun, having turned the safety on and not nearly as worried about it to go off. The man followed the gesture to look at the wall, which had the translation projected upon it.

"Ah..." The man sighed, straightening up, and Tony looked to the wall to understand what the man was saying, still not quite confident enough in his language skills to try playing it by ear. _"I am here on behalf of the Village Hidden in the Leaves to escort you to the village to speak with the Fire Shadow. You may call me _ANBU_ Dog."_

"JARVIS, don't translate that title. The Fire Shadow thing. And leave the first-name-last thing as-is." Tony waved a hand almost dismissively at the ceiling. "So, have you been ordered to take me back no matter what, or is this just an optional thing?"

"_Optional. However, it is very difficult to gain access to the Hidden Continent without a shinobi escort._" The man tilted his head at Tony. "_The Hokage and council refuse to allow Uchiha Sasuke out of the village unless he is escorted by an _ANBU_ guard and you have met with the Hokage himself for some discussions regarding Sasuke's future due to contracts that were signed by his parents when he was a child._"

Tony froze. Contracts. _Contracts_. He hated contracts. A lot.

That was the moment that he decided that, if he was going (which he damn well was), Pepper had to come with him.

"I see. So, why'd you jump in through the window at..." he glanced at his watch. "9:02 PM?"

"_I only just arrived._" The man's head tilted slightly, almost mocking. "_And the window is my preferred method of entry_."

Tony snorted. "Alright, Mr. Cloak-and-Dagger. Let's assume I trust you. So how about you answer me a few things? You're probably some kind of Black Ops, and I'm guessing you aren't here because _I'm_ particularly important to your country; there's something special about the kid. The question is: what's the big secret?"

The man in the mask tilted his head. "_Do you know of the Sharingan?"_

"...it's about the goddamn eyes."

"_Essentially_."

"Son of a bitch." Tony pressed a hand up against the side of his head. There was a _reason_ his mom left. "How did you get into the country?"

"_Completely legally, funnily enough_." The man's voice was mechanically altered, probably by the mask itself, but it still carried an air of certain amusement. "_Will you be coming with me?_"

Tony smirked. "Let me bring along my own protection detail, and show me what's under that mask, and I might just think about it. Oh, and do you have some official correspondence from your... boss?"

If going along with a shinobi was his only way to get the kid, then he _would _be going along, but he had to read through the other possibilities that JARVIS had looked up and research this guy's credibility first.

The man tilted his head, dug out a small scroll, and tossed it over to Tony.

Tony fumbled the catch.

"Gee, thanks."

"_I'm afraid that, while I have permission to take of my ANBU mask in this specific case if requested to due to personal reasons involving the Uchiha clan, you will likely be rather disappointed by what lies beneath._"

"Humor me."

"_Heh_." The man reached up, grabbed the mask, pulled it away and revealed... another mask.

With a strip of fabric and metal covering one eye.

There was, maybe, fifteen percent of the man's face visible.

And from the look in the visible eye, the man (now seeming much younger without the mask) was smiling the most shit-eating grin in the world.

Tony stared.

"...I _like_ you." Tony decided.

o.o.o.o.o

**April 3, 2003  
>11:18 AM<br>Just off the coast of California**

"Tony, you do _not_ need me here. Happy would have come along too, if you asked him."

"Hush, Rhodey. No complaining now. Besides, Happy can act as a bodyguard, but he can't fly the plane" Tony patted his friend's hand, which was on the controls for the jet, and then looked up at ANBU Dog. "You look confused."

The man looked at him for a second, and then glanced down at the small phone that Tony had loaned him for the sake of translations. "_We were not aware of your financial status. It is rather... surprising. Several of the council were worried that whoever you were, you would attempt to gain custody simply for the money that was left to Sasuke by default after the clan's death._"

"It's probably not even two percent of my net worth." Tony raised a glass in ANBU Dog's direction with a smirk. "Trust me, not a big deal."

"Tony, we are on your personal jet. I'm pretty sure he's realized that by now." Rhodey rolled his eyes.

"Down boys." Pepper reprimanded them, not looking up from the computer on her lap. "Rhodey, don't feed his ego. Tony, stop flashing your ego."

"I could flash something else." Tony offered, almost nonchalant.

"No, Tony." Both Rhodey and Pepper answered, sounding more bored than anything, a little too used to his antics.

"Hey, Pepper, aren't you supposed to call me Mr. Stark?" Tony tilted his head, probably in a way that he thought was cute.

"Tony, the number of times I've caught you with your pants down, quite literally, is far more than I'm comfortable with. The number of times I've tided over press scandals for you are astronomical. The number of times I've cleaned up your messes is ridiculous. I have the right to call you by your first name if I feel like it." Pepper never even looked up from the screen.

"...Thanks, Pepper."

"..._You are all very strange._" ANBU Dog commented.

o.o.o.o.o

**April 4, 2003  
>3:02 PM<br>Hokage Tower, Konohagakure**

"So... that was a disaster and a half." Tony said brightly.

"They had nowhere to land the plane, Tony. It would have been nice if you'd checked in about it _before_ we took off." Pepper was still a little jittery from the problem that had arisen.

"They took care of it!" Tony insisted. "They managed to expand their little dirt road enough to let us land within minutes of us radioing in the problem!"

"Not our best moment, Tony. Not our best moment." Rhodey was rubbing the heel of his palm against his eye. "We might have ended up having to crash land if they hadn't been able to do that."

"But we _didn't_." Tony insisted. "So let's let bygones be bygones, and try to figure out how there are thirteen-year-old kids jumping across rooftops that easily instead. Are you curious? I'm curious. That doesn't science."

"Science isn't a verb, Tony." Pepper reminded him.

"It is now." Tony decided, crossing his arms, tapping one finger against his arm. "Hey, Doggy boy, when do we get to meet the head honcho?"

The man that had accompanied them, now back in the mask that he'd first showed up in, tilted his head as Tony dug his phone out for the translations. "_The Hokage will call us in when he is able to. I would not suggest entering beforehand, as you are nowhere near as influencial and immune to consequences as you are back in the Outer Contries. Our military heirarchy is rather different from your own, and your money is both unknown and irrelevant to us._"

"...I call bullshit."

"_I thought you might._" Even with his face hidden behind the expressionless animal mask, the man gave off the air of grinning. "_Your wealth is, in some ways, very relevant to your situation. If you were to become a patron of Konoha in any way, it would be very helpful to us, and to your own case in regards to cementing custody of Uchiha Sasuke. However, your wealth will not protect nearly as well as it did back in your home country, and any opponents you make on the political field will not be so easily cowed."_

Tony thought it over for a second. "Is this because you guys decide that whoever can bash the most heads is the one in charge?"

"_We do put a little more thought into it than that, but you are, essentially, correct. Very few positions of power are held by those who do not have large quantities of chakra-based power, or are at least knowledgeable enough about how to use their power on a battlefield to win against those who normally dominate the field. A candidate for any position must demonstrate power, loyalty, and intelligence, or at least a willingness to take counsel and consider problems carefully, and while the latter two are more difficult to measure, the first quality is liable to put you in danger should you insult the wrong person._"

Pepper put a hand on Tony's shoulder, pulling him back down into his seat. "If it's still getting you angry, then you can do something about it later. For now, just play along until you can actually see the board instead of making moves blindly."

"Oh, Pepper." Tony smiled at her. "I never knew you were into chess metaphors."

"If you make one about sex, I'm not covering for you at the next board meeting you miss." Pepper anticipated his comment before he even made it. Damn. "Rhodey? Any thoughts?"

"I agree with you, honestly. I haven't really gotten much of a chance to see how this area works on that front, but what we know tells us that we're not exactly in a position of power right now. Playing it safe might actually save your life this time, Tony."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hey, doggy boy, tell me some more stuff about how your wall-walking thing works while we wait."

"..._Well, chakra can be used as a binding agent when applied properly..._"

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: A helicopter cannot make it that far on a single tank of gas, and Tony's too impatient to go on a boat, so they used an airplane. Kakashi decided to be a little shit and not warn them about the lack of landing spaces. He definitely warned the **_**Hokage**_** (which is why it only took a handful of minutes to get the road expanded), but Tony? Nah.**

**By the way, I'd like to warn you all that I've been reading Journey Into Mystery, Young Avengers, and Agent of Asgard (among other titles, but these are the relevant ones at the moment), and have gotten a better picture of what the Asgardian family trees are like in the intervening period. Given how much conflict there already is between the comics and the movies on that front, such as Frigga's role in the movies being a mixture of Freyja (Odin's wife) and Gaea's (Thor's mother) roles in the comics, I'll be excercising a little creative liberty insofar as Asgardian familial politics and histories are concerned. However, none of this will begin to come into play until May of 2010 in-universe, and that's still a ways off. You **_**may**_** be getting hints of it in the opening scenes of each chapter, the ones set during the Avengers movie.**

**Just... thought you ought to know.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	4. The Contract

**April 4, 2003  
>3:15 PM<br>Hokage Tower, Konohagakure**

"Come in."

Tony straightened up from where he was peeking at Pepper's laptop over her shoulder, and stared at the door. Okay, so the guy in charge could speak English. Good to know.

"Well, time to see what kind of mess Tony's going to drag us into now." Rhodey muttered, though he didn't seem too concerned; he was just standing there, holding Pepper's bag as she packed up the work supplies she'd had out. "Hopefully, we aren't going to get into trouble over the plane."

"Eh, I can pay them off." Tony waved a hand dismissively and sauntered off, striding through the door like he owned the building. He didn't, but he could totally buy the place if he felt like it (which he also didn't, but that was neither here nor there, because the point, in Tony's mind, was that he _could_).

The man at the desk was old, but not _super_ old, to Tony's judgment, and he was usually pretty good at judging a person's age (he had to be, especially when it came to potential paramours that were young enough for him to have to ask for an ID first). This guy was older than the ages that Tony had the most necessary experience with, but Tony would put him at... mid-sixties, or possibly late fifties with a dose of unnecessary stress.

"So, you're the big man in charge. Nice to meet you. I'm Tony Stark." Tony, as per usual, dismissed most senses of decorum and simply walked up to the desk and held out a hand to the old guy to shake, despite being some ninety-two percent sure that Pepper and Rhodey were busy commiserating over how terrible a person he was or something like that behind him.

"Indeed." The guy's voice was heavily accented, but still quite understandable. He shook Tony's hand as if irreverence was a daily fact of life for him. "I am the Sandaime Hokage, and I believe my name would, in your order, be Hiruzen Sarutobi."

"Thanks for the thing with the plane, by the way. Some warning would have been nice from doggy-boy over there,"

ANBU Dog made a strangled sort of noise. He was probably looking at the phone for translations again.

"But thanks anyway. Crashing wouldn't have been fun, and people would start asking questions about how I managed to get one of my planes destroyed so soon after the last one."

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "And what, pray tell, happened to the last one?"

"North Korea decided to try shooting us down while we were in the air. We made it down South far enough to make an emergency landing in South Korea, but the plane wasn't... well, it wasn't really in the best shape. Repairable, yeah, but still pretty heavily damaged." Tony shrugged.

"...You have many enemies." Sarutobi observed. Tony didn't bother trying to contradict him, just sat down in one of the chairs provided, Rhodey and Pepper doing the same on either side. The information wasn't a secret, and if the ninjas weren't capable of figuring it out from the days that the ANBU had spent with Tony, then they weren't worth being called ninjas.

"I'm not dead yet." Not for lack of trying, but nine kidnapping attempts as a child and five as an adult, and Tony still hadn't suffered more than a few hidden scars and three broken bones (two ribs when he was twenty, and the leg when he was sixteen).

"Good bodyguards?" Sarutobi seemed almost amused.

"The best that money can buy." Tony nodded, and then clapped his hands. "So, I should probably tell you who these two are. The lady's Pepper; she's my PA."

"Hello." Pepper bowed her head for a few seconds, the closest she could come to bowing fully as she knew she should be doing in a country with a culture so heavily based on the Japanese while sitting.

"And that's Rhodey; he's my best friend and also protection-slash-pilot fore this little trip."

"Pleasure to meet you." Rhodey's voice was stiff, but they were in a military village, a place that was putting Rhodey back into Air Force mode without much trouble.

"And they're two of the three or four people that I'm going to trust with knowledge about the kid without having them sign about thirty feet of paperwork." He glanced at Pepper, who rolled her eyes.

"I've had the NDAs written up since Wednesday, Tony." Pepper assured him.

Tony grinned at her and turned back to Sarutobi, who was watching them with a calculating eye. "So, what exactly is it that I need to know about all this? I'm guessing this isn't going to be as simple as this sort of thing usually is, and I can't really call _that _simple in the first place."

Sarutobi steepled his fingers, continuing to stare at them strangely. When he finally spoke, he was strangely hesitant. "Both your situation and Sasuke's make this much more complicated than usual. From what you have said thus far, I believe you mean to keep him out of the public eye. Am I correct in this assessment?"

"For as long as possible, or until he's eighteen." Tony nodded. "That's not a problem, right?"

"That's actually a rather good thing, I would say." Sarutobi leaned back in his seat. "Sasuke's going to have a lot of people after his head, and if he's both outside of the country and a living secret, then that can only make him safer."

"They're after the eyes." Tony had already asked ANBU Dog, yes, but... well, he'd like to hear some confirmation as well.

"Yes." Sarutobi said it simply, as though it wasn't _completely ridiculous_. "Given that he is both quite young and from a long line of Sharingan-bearers, as well the nature of his brother, he is going to be a prime target for many opportunists on the continent."

"Excuse me." Pepper interrupted with a smile on her lips and her usual air of _I have this under control, but do try to make my job easier before I pull out every last plug in the shop, so help me God, Tony._ "But what exactly is it that makes these eyes so special?"

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "The Sharingan is a _doujutsu_ passed down through the Uchiha over the course of several centuries, at least. It manifest as red irises with black comma-like markings, which spin in conjunction with their usage. The eyes, at varying stages, can copy physical attacks, chakra-based attacks, predict the movements of the enemy, provide perfect recall, and aid in the casting of illusions."

Tony's lips had pressed thinner and thinner with every word. Part of it was just memories of his mother and her less-than-fond memories of those eyes taunting her at every turn, and part of it was just... "I always hated hearing about all that. It shouldn't be possible. At all. Biology just doesn't work like that. Your chakra can explain some of it, but the color change just... really pisses me off."

"So it's a genetically-based super power?" Rhodey asked, glancing at Tony, who only took a second to understand.

"I suppose so," Sarutobi answered, leaning back in his seat. "There are quite a number of them here on the continents. Even within Konoha, there are still several other than the Sharingan."

"So... like entire clans of mutants." Rhodey seemed to be considering something, though Tony preempted his question.

"Don't go running to any of your superiors. I think I know someone else that'll need to know first." Tony did, actually, if only by reputation; he'd only really met the man once or twice at some gala or other. Professor Charles Xavier was technically just the principal of some private school out in the middle of nowhere, sure, but the man was pretty well known for his research into mutation-based superpowers, and pretty much the top of the field, which was pretty surprising, considering just how _rare _mutants were, and how well most of them hid. Sure, there'd been that one extremist group that had cropped up when Tony was a kid, but there hadn't been enough to really cause much trouble before they'd gone underground.(1)

"You sure?"

"Positive. Now, are the eyes going to be something I have to worry about?" Tony fiddled with a pen that he'd somehow managed to dig out of Pepper's briefcase. Huh. He hadn't noticed himself doing that. "Other than the whole 'there might be people trying to kidnap the kid,' which I'm already preparing for because of the shit that went down when I was a kid."

Sarutobi tilted his head, considering. "There may be. If his eyes were activated during the recent tragedy, they were likely trauma-locked as well, considering that he doesn't seem to be under the impression of ever having them. However, if they _were_ activated at all, he will perfectly recall every second of what he saw."

Pepper was the one to ask the question that Rhodey and Tony didn't quite dare. "And what did he see?"

"I believe that he walked into his parents' bedroom just as his brother pulled a blade out of their mother. Prior to that, he walked past a number of corpses to arrive at the building at all." Sarutobi seemed to grow older with every word.

There was silence for several seconds before Tony swore, standing up and beginning to pace the room. "Son of a _bitch_," he spat, turning on his heel again and again as he went across the room and back. "Pepper, please tell me some of those shrinks you were looking at have experience with kids with PTSD."

"I think there were a few." Pepper fingers twitched towards her bag, as though to pull her laptop out, but the motion was aborted partway through. "I'll check again later."

"Shrinks?" Sarutobi asked, eyes alight with... something. Interest, definitely. Maybe hope. He'd probably thought that Tony would do the bare minimum, all things considered. Well, too bad for him. Tony wasn't going to play at being his own father in this respect. He was going to do things as best as he could, and he had people to help him.

"Psychologists. We knew he'd need grief counselling, at least, but it looks like we'll need someone experienced in something a little more... difficult." Pepper winced. "Even without the perfect recall, we'd have insisted on sending him to someone on that front. No kid that sees that sort of thing is going to grow up right."

Sarutobi nodded along, but there was a different look in his eyes. "Mr. Stark, I believe I mentioned some contracts that had been signed by Uchiha Sasuke and his parents in the letter that ANBU Inu gave you?"

Tony resisted the urge to look back at Dog. "Yeah...?"

"Uchiha Sasuke is currently under contract to finish his schooling at the Academy and become a Konoha shinobi, and while I am aware that contracts are dissolved upon one's death in your country, and that a minor, particularly one so young, a contract can be easily voided. However... this is not your country." Sarutobi had probably already figured out what their knee-jerk reactions would be. Well, too bad. He'd be hearing it anyway.

"The ninja school."

"Yes."

"The one where he'd learn about how implement violence, kill people, steal, lie, etc."

"Yes."

"After his entire family was murdered."

"...Yes."

"If I didn't exist, would you be giving him any psychological help?"

"We would offer it, yes."

"But not force the issue."

"We would not."

Tony eyed him for several seconds, ignoring the warning looks that he was sure Pepper and Rhodey were sending him. "If that's indicative of your usual policy on literally _anything_ else involving your ninja's mental health, I'm surprised that this is the first massacre you've had."

"Tony!" Pepper hissed, no longer trying to act as though she expected him to play at diplomacy properly. There was a strangled squawk from the back of the room, but by this point, Tony was kind of sure that the guy was just doing it for fun, not actually taken aback.

"It's true!" Tony pointed at Sarutobi, looking him in the eye as he spoke. "You're teaching a heavily traumatized kid how to kill and hurt people for a living and you just admitted that you wouldn't even make the kid try to go through at least some grief counselling, if not full-on _years_ of therapy. You sure the brother didn't have some kind of dark history like that either? 'Cause at this point, I wouldn't be surprised."

Sarutobi waited patiently for Tony to finish, almost as though this was a regular thing for him. "If you're quite finished, I would like to point out that there are some extremely restrictive laws instituted by my predecessors that I cannot break without causing civil unrest. If it were up to me, Sasuke would not be allowed back into the Academy until he had been cleared by a Yamanaka. Unfortunately, my hands are tied."

"Thought this was a dictatorship."

"It is, usually. If we were in a state of war, my word would be absolute, and even without a war to deal with, I have the final say on all matters. However, my decisions do have consequences. There are repercussions, and I cannot risk the possibility of a civil war for the sanity of a single child, no matter how much I would like to. You, however..." Sarutobi inclined his head towards Tony, and suddenly, Tony understood. The kid would still have to end up coming back to the Academy, probably, because _ninjas_, and they'd probably kidnap the kid back if he showed signs of keeping the kid longer than they were comfortable with, but...

"Oh, you magnificent _bastard._" Tony was outright _leering_ at the idea.

Sarutobi blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Sorry, it's... it's a compliment. Like calling you a mastermind. Ish. Sort of. You know, like playing chess with people's brains."

"Tony." The two reprimands came simultaneously.

"Sorry, Pep. Sorry Rhodey." Tony shook his head. "So, I'm guessing that part of why you decided to contact the decidedly not-ninja me to take care of the kid was so that you don't end up with another crazy Uchiha. They can't argue with an actual adult relative taking control of the kid's life."

"To put it bluntly."

"I know respect you more than I did three and a half minutes ago." Tony leaned back in his seat, smirking. "Anything else I need to know?"

"You'll be introduced to Sasuke tomorrow, but for the time being, I would like to speak with you on other matters. While the Shinobi Nations as a whole refrain from using advanced weaponry due to several international treaties that signed during the Second Shinobi War, there is nothing banning us from other forms of foreign technology."

"Opposite of a nuclear deterrent." Tony mused. "Rather than build bigger, more powerful bombs to destroy everything, you cap it off as low as possible."

"Not quite, as we focus our energies into other forms of destruction instead. Sealing and chakra-based techniques. I believe that the tailed demons can be nearly as destructive as a nuclear bomb, as are certain S-rank techniques." Sarutobi chuckled drily. "It is less a matter of not wanting to escalate in power than a matter of realizing that we cannot be trusted with this power on top of everything else we possess. The odd civilian may have a gun, and small-scale foreign bombs aren't unheard of, but anything too advanced is avoided."

"So what do you want from me, then? You should know that weapons is the biggest part of my company, considering how much Lassie over there was reporting back when he was at my place." Tony jerked his head in ANBU Dog's direction, just in case the reference wasn't understood.

"It was implied, I believe, that you have other parts to your company as well. I want to extend the offer of a contract with Konoha for certain supplies." Sarutobi leaned forward, his fingers steepled atop the desk. "Infra-red goggles, better radios, cameras, medical technology. We may choose not to use advanced weaponry, but the rest is free to exploitation."

"And other than the contract, what do I get out of it?" Something to the Elemental Nations would need to be largely secretive.

"It will go a long way to buying the goodwill of the more powerful forces in the village, and can be used as an excuse for you to take Sasuke away from the village whenever you need to, though I ask, of course, that you let him spend at least half his time in the village." Sarutobi smiled. "So, would you lend us your aid in caring for our sick, in supporting our security systems, in reconnaissance and keeping our borders safe?"

"Are you technically allied with the United States?" Tony bit at his lip. There'd been some shady dealings before he took over the company, and he didn't want a repeat of some of the things he'd seen. If he was dealing with shady governments, then they'd need to be on his side already.

"Konoha is, I believe, the United State's main contact within the Elemental Nations, and the closest of her allies here." Sarutobi explained.

Tony tilted his head, and then glanced at Pepper. "How quietly can we do this?"

She pulled up a new document. "We can route it through Japan."

"So..."

"As quietly as we did STRIKE and SHIELD." (2)

"We'll write it up as soon as we get back to Malibu, then."

o.o.o.o.o

1. Due to copyright issues, a lot of the comics characters and organizations do not and most likely will not show up in the MCU (at least, not for quite some time). However, their presence is something that is either needed or difficult to work around (for instance, Wanda and Pietro exist, but Magneto may never be mentioned due to FOX owning the rights). I'm playing around with this for now, with there being a smaller mutant population than in the comics, the mutant organizations being smaller and dissolving early on, and essentially just making them background, underground organizations that function well in human society, to the point where portions of the population aren't even aware that mutants are a thing. Similarly, the Fantastic Four exist, but they are out-of-focus and still completely human; that may change, depending on how I feel about them later on. Aliens exist, but do not involve themselves as much as in the comics. Spoiler alert: the first alien character from outside the MCU (so not a Thor, Thor II, Avengers, or GotG character) that we'll be seeing in this fic, if everything goes according to plan, is actually Teddy Altman, otherwise known as Dorrek VIII.

2. STRIKE is, in the comics, the British equivalent to SHIELD. SHIELD itself, I'm assuming, had quiet but completely aboveboard dealings with Tony after Howard died. Tony wasn't too bothered with what was being done with the weapons, since he knew that he was selling them to government organizations responsible for peace. He started paying a little more attention after Afghanistan, of course, but things still came in as primarily normal on that front. (It would, even if Hydra was getting its tentacles dirty with Stark tech. They had that well-hidden, after all.)

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Figure I'll cut it off there. This was a long bit.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	5. The Hospital

**April 4, 2003  
>4:50 PM<br>Hospital, Konohagakure**

The kid had weird hours. It wasn't that much of a surprise, but the kid was still in the hospital (officially to make sure there wasn't any lasting physical damage from the usage of the stupid eyes, and unofficially to keep an eye on the kid for psychological reasons and until they figured out what to do with him), and was sleeping through most of the day due to not being allowed to do any of his activities of choice, other than read.

Tony knew it would be stupid to wake the kid, so he pulled out a laptop, sat down in one of the (private) room's chairs, and started playing around with the designs for a new kind of missile. He wasn't getting any real flashes of inspiration, but there were at least a few little tweaks he could add to what he had laying around before he got back to Malibu.

He was midway through some adjustments on the fins of what was _technically_ an ICBM when he heard some rustling coming from the bed. He glanced up, but looked back down within the second, and didn't try to get the kid's attention; that would probably make the kid panic. On the other hand, if Tony ignored him and just acted like he belonged there (which he did) until he tried to get Tony's attention, the kid would probably be a lot more open to the idea of talking to him.

Maybe.

"Oi."

Tony ignored that.

"Teme dare?"

Tony finally looked up at the kid, and then waved rather lazily. "Hey, kid."

The kid didn't seem to understand that. Fair enough; Tony hadn't spent his time at seven on foreign language either; Tony had studied circuitry instead (and the kid had studied ninja killing techniques, because the Hidden Continent was completely ridiculous).

The kid repeated the question, demanded, really, and seemed to be gearing up to fight him, because ninjas.

o.o.o.o.o

**May 12, 2012  
>3:51 PM<br>Helicarrier**

"Because… ninjas?" Steve Rogers, the lauded Captain America, seemed rather confused.

"Yes." Tony nodded as though the answer made all the sense in the world. "Because ninjas."

"Steve." Bruce reached over and lightly put his hand on the man's shoulder. "Ignoring Tony's disregard for the rules of grammar, you know what a ninja is in most of media, right?"

"Yes?" Steve hadn't learned _everything_ about the modern era, but he'd picked up on a lot since Tony waltzed into his life with a sarcastic quip and absolutely no respect. "They're spies in ancient Japan. Or a special kind of spy, these days."

"Pretty much." Bruce hesitated. "These days, the only places where 'ninja' is really a standard job option is in the Elemental Nations on the Hidden Continent, and there… it's really more of a system of organized mercenaries."

"Nah, mercenaries are basically the freelance operatives with no ninja training." Tony butted in. "Though he's right in that they basically do anything they're paid to do, so long as it goes through the village first, and they function as the village's military, and also occasionally as the entire country's."

"The… village?"

"A centralized, city-wide military dictatorship that functions as a quasi-separate entity within the country that it exists in." Natasha explained, wry grin on her face; she had her own experiences with the system, some of which coincided with Tony's. "Imagine if a city or town, maybe the size of Staten Island, was 40% civilian and 60% military, and had an existing pact with the United States to function as a special ops force in case of emergencies, along with taxes and civilian laws in line with the rest of the country, but generally functioned as a separate entity, sending out operatives out on missions covering everything from agricultural help to reconnaissance to guard missions to assassinations. Due to the power of the denizens, the country can't get rid of them, and due to the money in the country, the village can't rebel."

"That sounds rather precarious."

"The villages are usually more concerned with each other and with their own rogue elements. No time for taking down the government." Natasha hummed a bit. "Very little interaction with the rest of the world as well. The Hidden Continent keeps to itself, as far as the shinobi go. Even the civilians mostly limit themselves to just trading by sea, rather than by plane or anything more modern."

"Hidden village politics are messy and ridiculous." Tony declared, and then tilted his head, considering. "I have an employee that understands it pretty well, though, and he can explain it if you ask him. You've met Mr. White, right?"

Steve nodded silently, because he knew _exactly _who Mr. White was. As embarrassing as Steve's mistake had been, he wasn't likely to forget it.

"Well, great. He can explain shinobi politics to you at some point when I'm not telling my story." Tony spun his chair around in a full circle. "Right, so, where were we?"

o.o.o.o.o

**April 4, 2003  
>4:51 PM<br>Hospital, Konohagakure**

"I can't understand you." Tony said, though he though he understood most of what was being said; languages weren't exactly his forte. He could become an expert on new scientific fields overnight, but languages took a little longer.

The kid seemed to understand what was going on, and deflated, settling back into his seat, arms folded, and glaring moodily at Tony. Tony raised an eyebrow and passed a spare phone over, the translation program already running. "Here, try this." He held his own phone up. "Look, I've got one too."

The kid picked up the phone gingerly, as though expecting it to blow up at any second. After a couple of seconds, he seemed to realize what was going on, and then repeated his question again.

"_Who are you?"_

"Tony Stark." Wait… "Well! You guys put family names first, right? So I guess I'm actually Stark Tony here. Wow, that's weird to say. You feel like introducing yourself now?"

"_My name is Uchiha Sasuke._"

Something _clicked_ at that moment. Tony had known the name before, of course, but actually hearing him introduce himself… that was the moment when he went from "the kid" to "Sasuke."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Not exactly a man of many words, are you?"

Sasuke didn't even bother to say anything this time, just grunted.

"You're going to be trouble; I can tell." Tony had had a few phases like this of his own.

"_Are you supposed to be my new therapist?"_ Sasuke asked, almost wary. If Tony said yes, the kid wasn't going to be talking.

"_Hell_ no." Tony shuddered. "I'm not exactly good at the comfort thing, and honestly, I don't think anyone would trust me with their mental health. No, I'm here for a different reason." He snapped his fingers. "Hey, JARVIS, bring up the family tree on Sasuke's phone, and make sure it's in Japanese, though you should probably keep the English for my branch, or at least have it as a subtitle-y thing."

"At once, sir."

Sasuke didn't jump when JARVIS's voice came out of the machine, but he did stiffen and glare suspiciously as the picture was brought up. After a couple of seconds, he looked back up at Tony, eyebrows furrowed. "_This is impossible._"

"Impossible? Impossible things sometimes pop up in front of me. Usually I get rid of them pretty easily. Tell me, though; what's so impossible about that?" Tony challenged.

"_You should be dead!_" Sasuke hissed. "_Everyone is dead!_"

"So… you think I'm lying? Or you're not letting yourself hope? Or you're bitter that it was me that survived and not someone you already knew?" Tony was pretty sure it was all three, and the uncomfortable look on the kid's face told him all he needed to know.

(The kid had a better poker face than most his age, but Tony was used to dealing with politicians and businessmen. He could read that kind of face without trouble.)

"Kid, listen. I live halfway across the world, in the United States, and do you know what that means? It means that, if your brother wanted to, at any point, come to kill me, he'd have had to travel for at least a few days, especially since you guys apparently don't do planes. On top of that, I had some genetic tests done when I was younger, and I didn't, or did, depending on how you look at it, win the superpower lottery, because I don't have the eyes that the Uchiha were so famous for. Besides that, I'm not even sure if I exist on your clan's paperwork, since my mom gave you guys the middle finger and only ever really kept in contact with her sister." Tony wasn't exactly sure that he'd breathed at any point, but oh well.

"_…Her sister."_ Sasuke looked back down at the phone in his hands, visibly swallowing as his eyes found the name in question. Tony didn't wince in sympathy, but he definitely felt for the kid; said sister was Sasuke's grandmother.

"So, yeah. I don't have your eyes, don't have any chance of passing on the eyes, and traveling all the way to the US just to kill me was probably more trouble than it was worth." Tony tried to distract Sasuke, tried to draw the boy's eyes away from the screen. "JARVIS, hide the family tree."

Sasuke's head snapped up when the tree was gone, eyes accusing and just the slightest bit watery. The kid was nowhere near done mourning, and while Tony didn't actually know anything about helping out a kid with issues this bad, it couldn't be healthy to wallow with just a chart of names in front of him. To his credit, Sasuke seemed to realize that something was meant to be going on, and got right back to business.

"_Why are you here, then? What is it that you want?"_ Sasuke's eyes were narrowing again. "_The clan had money, plenty of it. Is that why you're here?"_

Tony groaned. "Why does everybody ask that? No, it's not the money. That's all yours. I'm not touching it."

Sasuke kept glaring.

"Kid, trust me. I don't need that money. I'm one of the richest men on the planet, and when I say that your clan's money would barely be a drop in the pond, I mean it."

Technically, the Uchiha clan as a whole had somewhere around $170 million in various assets (Pepper had gone through the files for him), which was pretty well-off for a clan of less than four hundred, but not quite on the level of Tony's $8.6 billion net worth (and always growing). The Uchiha were worth a little more than two percent of his net worth, which was really closer to a couple gallons in the pond than a couple drops, but the exaggeration was acceptable.

Sasuke looked skeptical.

"I could quite possibly buy up your entire village's government if I felt like it." Tony declared, though he wasn't _quite_ sure how much Konoha was worth. He could definitely buy up all the land, and a good chunk of the buildings, at least.

Sasuke's face didn't change.

"Ever heard of TIME magazine?"

"_Yes."_

"I've been on the cover, multiple times, if that's something you think might be important in judging my net worth." Seriously, how to convince this kid that he really was richer than the majority of the world's population… "And once you get out of here, I'll show you my private jet."

"Y_our… what?"_

"Airplane. You know, the stuff people use to fly around outside your little ninja continent."

Sasuke pursed his lips. Okay, so Tony was getting through, a bit.

"_But why are you here at all?"_ There were some words, unspoken, behind that, but Tony wasn't sure quite what the kid was trying to say. If he was anywhere near right, though, then it was probably something along the lines of 'what kind of idiot is coming near here where Itachi might get them?'

Bah.

Tony had been on the receiving end of so many death threats and kidnappings and assassination attempts that almost nothing really fazed him anymore, not unless he was in the middle of the last of the three, in which case he occasionally panicked.

Itachi wasn't here, ergo there was nothing to worry about.

"Well, you see, I'm your only living relative, and I'm a legal adult that signed all the appropriate papers and stuff, so I'm basically your full legal guardian until you get your little ninja certification in this country, and your partial legal guardian until you turn twenty here. In the US, though, I'll be your full legal guardian until you're eighteen. Of course, this is if I don't accidently blow myself up or go off the deep end." Tony mused, lacing his hands behind his head and tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. "So you can call me Uncle or something. Uncle Tony? That sounds okay to me. What do you think, JARVIS?"

"I have no preference on the subject."

"Right, forgot about that." Tony brought his gaze back down to look at Sasuke. "So you'll be coming to the US with me and going to grief counselors and therapists and all that fun stuff until you're declared mentally healthy enough to go back to your ninja school."

The anger that flashed over Sasuke's face was almost impressive. "_No! I have to stay, have to train, I have to be ready to kill Itachi when I see him again!"_

Tony raised both eyebrows and tilted his head forward. "Uh… no. Just that would have been enough to make me take you to some shrinks, even if I didn't know the whole story. You need to get your head screwed on straight before you go back to learning how to kill people. And before you ask, the Hokage agreed to all this. He's agreed with me that you need to go to some kind of counselling before you go back to school."

Tony left out the bit that the Hokage couldn't legally enforce Sasuke's leave from the Academy. However, Tony, being Sasuke's legal guardian, _could_, and the Hokage could also grant several months of leave to Sasuke with no repercussions other than possibly remedial classes.

Sasuke didn't seem willing to give up on his need to go back to the school as soon as possible, and appeared to be trying to think up another argument. Sadly for him, Tony was king of rambling on forever with no real substance but lots of words and time and natter.

"You'll be able to go back eventually, brat." Tony tried not to make the last word sound like an insult, because being called 'brat' by the help when he was a kid had always been better than being called 'young man' by adults that didn't realize just how much of their condescension he understood. "You just need to get back into fighting condition _mentally_ before you can get back into fighting condition physically. You'll be allowed to exercise and learn and all that, you know. You just won't be allowed near any weapons or anything too violent for a while."

Sasuke still didn't seem willing to agree and just calm down already, but he wasn't trying to argue the subject anymore, so that was _something_, at least.

Tony smiled, and it was so very, very soft compared to his usual smirks. "You're gonna be fine, kid."

o.o.o.o.o

**April 4, 2003  
>6:07 PM<br>Hokage Tower, Konohagakure**

"People keep glaring at me and asking me the same question." Rhodey complained as Tony sat down in a chair outside the hospital room. "And because you took both the translators, I don't even know what they're asking."

Even as he said that, a man with white eyes and one of the dirtiest looks Tony had ever seen passed by.

Tony shrugged and, in a move that many (including Pepper and Rhodey, who only groaned or sighed at him) would deem incredibly stupid, jogged after the man and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, buddy, can I ask you something?"

The man raised an eyebrow, though it did nothing to minimize the angry look from before. Luckily for Tony, _this_ guy seemed to actually speak English, even if it was rather heavily accented. "I am not your… buddy."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Not the point." Tony waved it off without much interest. "Anyway, I gotta ask, why are there so many people glaring at my friend over there? As far as I know, he's never even been on the continent before—"

"I haven't." Rhodey chimed in.

"—so there's really not much he could have done to get you guys all to hate him that easily. Is it because he's Air Force?" Tony leaned in closer to stage-whisper the next bit, because making a person think they'd been mistaken for something they hated was usually the quickest way to get them to own up to what they were actually doing, and most people didn't want to be thought of as racist, at least not publicly. "Is it because he's black?"

The man, after several seconds of staring at Tony and Rhodey alternatively, shook his head. "We assumed he was from Kumogakure, and given the grudge that many in the village hold against Kumogakure after the event that occurred several years ago…" he trailed off. "As the only country in the Elemental nations to have citizens with that color skin is Kaminari no Kuni, we immediately thought he was one of theirs. We rarely get visitors from outside the continent."

"…So it actually _is_ because he's black." Tony couldn't keep the incredulity out of his voice, because _wow_ that had never actually happened before.

"I will see to spreading the information as necessary. I apologize for any discomfort we may have all caused you." The man inclined his head, and then turned and strode off.

Tony just turned to look at Rhodey and Pepper, neither of whom had a real explanation ready. Tony made a small noise of despair.

"Fucking _ninjas."_

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I'm starting to toss in some more hints in the "modern" scenes as to what happened due to Sasuke's presence in the story, and if you notice any discrepancies compared to the movies (like the whole thing with Steve)… well, blame the ninjas.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	6. The Plane

**April 4, 2003  
>8:39 PM<br>Aka Hou-ou Hotel, Konohagakure**

"Hey, Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember what I said about how, if someone brings up me being black, that someone better be me?"

"…Shit. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I… I fucked up, didn't I?"

"All those brains and you still forget this stuff."

"…Yeah."

A sigh. A clap on the back. "Don't worry yourself about it. Just try not to do it again."

"I…yeah. Sorry."

o.o.o.o.o

**April 6, 2003  
>10:27 PM<br>Outside the Gates of Konohagakure**

Sasuke stared distrustfully at the plane that was currently standing on Konoha's main road, tank full and ready for take-off.

"C'mon, kiddo, it's as safe as anything else out there." Tony couldn't, in all confidence, tell the kid that the machine was _completely_ safe, because nothing ever really was, but the plane was less likely crash than a car or even a boat, though slightly more likely to get attacked than the latter (though that had more to do with Tony himself than with the plane being a plane).

Despite Tony's oh-so-impressive attempts to reassure him, Sasuke didn't look convinced.

Part of that was _probably_ due to him not having the translator out and Tony not being able to say things like that in Japanese.

(Yet.)

(Languages weren't his forte at all, but he was _trying_, dammit.)

"Well, it's better than Roxxon's planes, anyway." Rhodey threw in with a grin, ignoring the look that Tony shot him. Roxxon's planes were… well, they weren't _terrible_, but comparing Tony's planes to theirs was honestly more of an insult than a compliment. "Now, we better hurry, because while I _am_ on leave, that time is going to end very soon, and I'd rather not deal with trouble from my bosses on that front."

Tony didn't wince, because Tony didn't _do_ things like that, but he was more than self-aware enough to realize that many of those previous instances of Rhodey getting into trouble with the Military were mostly his fault. At least, by this point, the guys in charge had realized that Rhodey was their best bet at keeping Tony on decent terms with them, and that Tony was essentially an invaluable resource, so it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but...

Well. Better to get a move on than keep on stalling.

"Kid, I know you're scared." Tony watched out of the corner of his eyes as the words scrolled down the translator-equipped phone. "But we really do have a schedule to keep, so…"

Tony glanced helplessly at Pepper. He was trying to curb his natural "asshole" tendencies, because that was kind of something to do around a kid with as many issues as Sasuke, but… how was he supposed to get the kid onto the plane without forcing him on?

Thankfully, Sasuke seemed to finally get over his hesitation about the plane and, however slowly, began making his way over to the stairs that folded out of the side of the craft.

Tony sagged in relief for half a second, and then bounded up the steps behind his… eh, nephew was close enough. He'd use that whenever he needed to explain something, though the frequency of such occasions would be low.

When Sasuke was settled in (steadfastly ignoring everyone around him and glaring out a window instead), and Pepper and Tony were buckled into their own seats, Rhodey came on over the intercom, cheerily announcing that they were about to take off, so buckle in before you slam into another wall, Tony, you can unbuckle once we're in the air.

"He promised not to mention that again." Tony grumbled, though he noticed that Sasuke had a ghost of a smile on his face now, the phone in his hands open to the translator again.

"He's just teasing and you know it." Pepper assured him, her hand on Tony's elbow. "Now come over here and go through these papers."

"Tell me what I'm looking at." Tony said, even as he pulled the stacks towards him.

"This pile is what you need to go through before the board tomorrow morning." Pepper pointed towards the left-most stack. "This pile is résumés and reviews for potential bodyguards we could hire for Sasuke, and this pile is the same for potential nannies."

Tony took one glance at the papers for the board meeting and handed it back to Pepper. "There's a pretty good chance that I either already know or don't care about everything in here, isn't there?"

Pepper gave him a thin smile and nodded, not quite letting her amusement show. "I'll pick out the few things that have actually changed without your knowledge since the last meeting then."

"Yeah, I'll start going through these." Tony waved the stack of nanny-résumés and settled in to read.

The thing was, most of the nannies were incredibly over-qualified for general work, and Tony could understand why. These women (and a handful of men) were all experienced, yes, but they also had other things appended to their papers, martial arts and field medicine and everything the nanny for a high-profile child could possibly have to offer. They weren't just nannies, but caretakers specifically trained for taking care of children at high risk for kidnappings and assassinations. Many of them _were_ former bodyguards or military personnel, and Tony quickly found himself struggling to weigh all the options against one another, focusing mostly on their capabilities in defense (because as wonderful as the original Jarvis had been when Tony was younger, the man had been a butler, not a defender). A capable nanny in that respect meant one less bodyguard, and one less bodyguard meant one less person in the know about Sasuke.

"If I could make a suggestion?" Pepper's voice broke through his thoughts, and Tony looked up quizzically. The woman smiled and pointed to a section on the résumé Tony was currently looking at. "Most of them have a section on languages spoken. It's not a be-all end-all, but finding someone who's fluent in both English and Japanese would be a good idea."

Tony closed his eyes for a second, slightly embarrassed. He really should have remembered that, genius or not, but that was what Pepper was there for; when Tony got too focused on the details, she was there to remind him to step back and take a look at the big picture (or at least get some sleep).

He quickly flipped through the files again, sorting them into four piles: knows Japanese, knows defense, knows both, and knows neither.

The last group, small as it was, he immediately removed. The first two he kept in mind, especially since the knows-defense-but-not-Japanese pile was the largest by far, but his focus was mostly on the "knows both" pile, which had three applicants: Annalise Hoover, Berthold Rhine, and Rachel Douglas.

"Pep? What do you think of these three?" Tony pushed the papers across the table between them. "Hoover's got more experience than the other two, but the reviews say she's not exactly the best with children. Rhine's got the best childcare skills and there are people that note his ability to keep his employers' secrets, but he's a bit jumpy and panicky in bad situations. Douglas is newer than the others, but she's got better fighting capabilities, from what I can tell, and, uh…"

He didn't finish the sentence, just pointed at a spot on the page and waited for Pepper to read it.

"Experience treating soldiers with PTSD." Pepper muttered. "And a college major in psychology, focusing on treating traumatized and abused children."

"I don't know about abused, but traumatized definitely fits the bill, right?" Tony's fingers were tapping out tattoo against the table. "I'm not sure if that weighs out against the lack of nanny experience, though. I'm not sure how most of these weigh against one another. I've never had to hire a nanny before."

Pepper smiled softly, eyes tracking over the three pages. "Who are you leaning towards?"

"Douglas." Tony answered without hesitation. "The trauma thing caught my attention. But I need a second opinion."

"No, no, I agree with you." Pepper nodded, looking over all three papers again. "Rhine and Hoover are good, but I think Douglas is probably our best bet. Still, you should probably ask Obadiah and Colonel Rhodes for their input too."

"He's told you to call him Rhodey, you know."

"I know." Pepper grinned at him. "Now, we'll keep Hoover and Rhine as second and third choices, in case Douglas's interview doesn't go well, and in the meantime, you can look over the bodyguards."

Tony groaned, but pulled the pile towards himself nonetheless. This, at least, he had some more experience with.

o.o.o.o.o

**April 7, 2003  
>7: 34 AM<br>Malibu**

"You can survive without me for one day." Pepper readjusted Tony's collar, patting down his shoulders and smoothing out the barely-present wrinkles on his chest. "And I'll still be working, I just won't be there physically."

"I know, but the kid is… should we be leaving Sasuke alone yet? I mean, I know you'll be here, that's _why_ you're not coming with me, but I don't want to be some kind of, some kind of absent…" Tony trailed off at the look that Pepper was giving him, all fond exasperation. After a few seconds, he sighed. "What do you think?"

"Well, what did you like doing when you were his age?" Pepper asked; Tony didn't doubt that she was already planning on other things that had to be done with Sasuke that day, like explaining JARVIS and probably most modern tech. Sasuke had fallen asleep by the time they'd gotten in last night, though with the delay caused by evading a tropical storm and the subsequent stop in Hawaii for more fuel (none of the adults had been particularly interested in letting turbulence make Sasuke even more worried), this wasn't exactly unexpected. Unfortunately, that meant that Sasuke had been carried in by Tony and just left in the new bedroom, rather than receiving a grand tour and an introduction to JARVIS and co.

Tony thought back. "I don't think programming is on his list of hobbies."

Pepper raised an eyebrow. "Okay, what did you do at that age that other kids might have been doing?"

"I… watched a lot of sci-fi?" Tony scratched the back of his head. "The sort of stuff where the science was so out-there that it passed the point of bothering me."

"So, what, Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica…" Pepper trailed off. "I'm sorry, I only remember those three, really. Someone drilled them into my head as 'the sci-fi trifecta' when I was in high school. Drilled them into _everybody's_ heads, really; she never really stopped talking about them."

"I mean I watched and read things that were either science in name only, or fiction in name only." Tony explained. "Star Wars was 'soft' enough that I could just tell myself to ignore it all because it was barely even pretending to be science, and the same thing went for Doctor Who. Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek were a bit more… they teetered. They tried to be science, and a lot of modern science plays around with things they imagined, but… not hard enough. Not soft enough. I love them now, but as a kid? Not a chance."

"Mr. Stark," Pepper crossed her arms. "While I'm glad to know more about your childhood preferences, given that I never know when such information could be useful—"

"Really?"

"For all I know, you'll ask me about this conversation one day when you're more paranoid than usual and want to make sure I'm me and not… I don't know, a shape-shifting alien or mutant or something."

Tony thought it over for about three seconds, and then simply shrugged and nodded. "Seems like something I'd do."

"In any case, all I needed was a suggestion of a show you wouldn't mind me looking up and setting up for Sasuke to watch while you're gone." Pepper reminded him. "All I'm getting right now is a suggestion of, what, Star Wars or Doctor Who?"

"If he's going to be introduced to Star Wars, I'm going to be there." Tony said immediately; there were few things better than watching someone first get introduced to the best of the classics. "Doctor Who will work, though. Just make sure to find it with subtitles."

"If there aren't any available, I'm sure JARVIS can take care of it." Pepper reminded him. "Now, you have a meeting, Mr. Stark. I'd suggest you go."

"Right." _Going to this meeting is not abandoning the kid; just make sure you talk to him once you get back, and don't ignore him, and you'll already be doing better than Howard._

Tony tried to believe himself.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Pepper may not know what Skrulls are, but she hit the nail on the head in that respect. And no, there will **_**not**_** be any Attack on Titan characters showing up in this story, because that's not what this crossover **_**is **_**(I have something else co-starring the Young Avengers and the crew of the **_**Serenity**_** from Firefly for that one). However, the names Annalise Hoover and Berthold Rhine are absolutely in homage to Annie Leonhardt, Bertholt Fubar/Hoover, and Reiner Braun.**

**I know absolutely nothing about Battlestar Galactica, and barely anything more about Star Trek, while my knowledge of Star Wars is from watching of the movies at a very young age and not particularly enjoying them (which means I remember next to nothing, but I **_**do**_** remember enough to make sense of what I read on the internet, and as such can usually fake my way). Similarly, my knowledge of Classic Who is all from friends and the internet, but given who said friends are, I'm fairly certain that's more than enough (and I'm planning on watching Classic at some point in the future anyway). However, TvTropes saw fit to inform me of where all these series sat on Moh's Scale of Science Fiction Hardness, and helped me come up with a way to avoid involving the full trifecta.**

**Also, please keep in mind that the MCU, unlike the comics, is not Science in Genre Only, but wavers between Physics Plus and World of Phlebotinum… you know, after Thor and the other weird stuff shows up. Tony still thinks he's living in something that's more or less Real Life (the Iron Man movies would count as either Speculative Science Fiction or One Big Lie, more likely the latter). This story will hover its way over to World of Phlebotinum as I involve more and more aliens, but I'd like to point out that anything on that front is **_**thrown out the bloody window**_** whenever the ninjas show up, because ninjas just don't science (Tony ignores anything ninjas do that doesn't involve him, simply as a result of that fact).**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	7. The Nanny

**IMPORTANT: Rachel Douglas is not an original character. She is using an alias, yes, but she is a native to the Marvel Comics.**

o.o.o.o.o

**May 12, 2012****  
><strong>**3:59 PM****  
><strong>**Helicarrier**

"You were planning on letting him watch Star Wars?" Coulson asked, arms folded where he stood across the table from Tony. Thor, seated near him, seemed bemused, not quite understanding what Star Wars was beyond a form of entertainment. "That doesn't exactly seem like the best choice."

"I thought better of it later." Tony grumbled. "Once I realized how badly some of it could probably trigger him, I decided to put it off for… a while."

"A while?"

"Year and a half at minimum." Tony shot back, arms crossed. He opened his mouth to continue, but was cut off by a cough from the end of the table. Turning, he saw a SHIELD medic standing there, nervously clutching a clipboard.

"Do you have something to tell us?" Fury asked after several seconds of the medic opening and closing their mouth silently, clearly unsure of how to word something.

"We've gotten the girl stabilized, but one of the children is demanding a large tub of water, and while we would draw a bath if we thought it could be beneficial, his wounds are too heavy for that to be safe at the moment." The medic finally let out in one big breath.

"Wait!" Tony cut her off, seeming far too excited. "I know this one! It's the kid with the sword, right? White hair, purple eyes, pointy teeth, etcetera?"

The medic nodded slowly.

"He's a Hozuki. The water will help. Some weird thing to do with his biology. Warning: he'll look like he's disappeared at first." Tony knew that much, at least; he'd outright demanded information on Sasuke's planned team when they'd first been collected.

"…understood." The medic nodded and scrawled something across her paper, though she looked doubtful of the verity of Tony's claims. "Also, one of the boys, Sasuke? He said he'll be coming up to see you in half an hour or so, and the taller boy will be coming with him."

"That'd be Juugo." Tony nodded. "Yeah, we'll be expecting him."

"You better hurry your story up before then, Stark." Fury ordered. "We don't have enough time for the details."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll hurry up. Anyway, I think I was about to talk about Rachel? Wait, no, the aftermath thingamajig first."

o.o.o.o.o

**April 7, 2003****  
><strong>**3:04 PM****  
><strong>**Malibu**

Tony got back a good six hours after he left, annoyed and socially exhausted, though he tried not to let it show as he walked up the stairs from the garage to the main floor. Behind him, Happy locked up the car and followed along; he'd been the first person to sign the NDA, after all.

Tony paused in the doorway to get a look at the situation before jumping in. Pepper was at the bar, laptop out and a glass of water (well, probably water; she was at a bar, yes, but she was also _Pepper_, and there was a kid in the room, so probably water). Sasuke was sitting in front of the TV, legs folded underneath him, staring at the screen in what appeared to be consternation. His eyes were flickering along the subtitles at a respectable rate, certainly better than most kids his age, and Tony realized that he'd come in just in time for the end of "The Daleks." Thinking back, Pepper had probably done some research and skipped the first mini-arc; "An Unearthly Child" _might_ not have been the most child-friendly of arcs, especially not for a child like Sasuke.

"Guess who's back?" Tony said.

"Welcome back, Mr. Stark." Pepper didn't look up from the computer she was at, so Tony walked over to look at the files spread out next to her. They mostly looked like some kind of quarterly report, which Tony promptly ignored. Sasuke still hadn't turned away from the screen, so Tony took a seat next to Pepper and leaned against the bar.

"How was he?" Tony said lowly, not quite whispering.

"He woke up about an hour after you left. I made him breakfast and explained where you were, and he seemed… well, not disappointed, but sort of… vindictively resigned? It was kind of an 'I expected as much,' look." Pepper shook her head. "I looked up the first few episodes to make sure they were okay for him, and even though it said PG, I didn't really think the synopsis was all that promising for the first few episodes, so I explained that and I _think_ he understood, given the way he rolled his eyes at me. The second… story? The story seemed better in that sense, so I had JARVIS put that on instead."

Tony rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, it's been a long time since I saw these; maybe I can show him the first arc in a year or two. Did the clothing you ordered arrive?"

"Yes, and I made sure to order through a proxy like you asked. Anyone looking at where the clothing goes will see it coming to me, and I can pass it off as being for one of my younger cousins." Pepper pulled out a printed list of clothing she'd ordered, most of it fairly plain and inoffensive, even to someone like Sasuke.

Tony grinned. "You're a lifesaver, Pep. Anyway, uh, it's not too late for lunch, right?"

"I'll order in. Any preferences?" Pepper already had her phone out, her other hand flipping through some easily-accessed PDF take-out menus on her laptop.

"Uh…" Tony glanced at Sasuke, then back at Pepper. "I could ask him? That would be a good idea, right? Make him feel at home or welcome or whatever, right?"

Pepper stamped down a grin. "Yes, it should."

"Right, um, I'll… I'll go get on that." Tony turned around and walked over to the couch, unceremoniously flopping down next to Sasuke, who flinched and subsequently stiffened, which Tony took note of for later interactions, because making Sasuke uncomfortable wasn't exactly on his list of fun things to do when bored.

(_That_ list included things like inventing, explosions, and one-night stands.)

"So, I'm back." He said unnecessarily. "You have fun while I was gone?"

Sasuke glanced down at the phone that was still handling all the translations, then looked back up at Tony with what was probably supposed to be a dirty look, but on a seven-year-old, it just looked cute. Tony made a vague gesture with one hand, and the translation program showed up on the wall.

"_This show is strange."_ Sasuke said, which was, at least, not particularly negative.

"So you enjoyed it?" Tony started running through possible replacement shows in his head. He doubted Sasuke would like any actual _children's_ shows, but there had to be something fairly child-friendly that wasn't overtly condescending or—

"_It was… acceptable. If I must watch something, I would not mind it being this._" Sasuke's speech was stilted, even in Japanese (which Tony still only kind of understood and had to rely on JARVIS for full translation for), as though he was trying to sound older than he was. "_When may I return to training?_"

"…When you're not obsessed with training anymore." Tony answered. "Seriously, kid, you can do all the jogging and sit-ups you want, but I'm not comfortable letting you near a punching bag, let alone any actual sparring or whatever."

Sasuke's face clouded over, anger and disappointment and resentment and maybe even a bit of derision radiating out from him.

"In the meantime," Tony continued, "You can keep studying your other stuff. The reading and writing math and science and history stuff you brought with you? That's all fine. And you'll have time to learn English, too."

Sasuke pursed his lips, but that seemed to appease him, if only a little. He still seemed put out about not being able to keep practicing how to kill his brother, but—

"Actually, though, I took a look at some of your things, and while I understand why they'd frame it like that, since you're in ninja school and everything, I may be taking your math and science schooling into my own hands while you're here." Tony took in the look of indignation on Sasuke's face and… brushed it off. Yeah, making sure the kid was comfortable was important, but keeping the kid _sane_ was a bit higher on the list. "Don't give me that look. All your problems are related to how to kill or incapacitate people or troop inventories. Besides, science and math are the areas I'm best in, and I'm already a super-genius, so, you know, you'll be learning from one of the best minds in the business."

_Prodigies and genii rarely make for good teachers,_ he'd once heard.

Fuck that.

He'd _make_ it work.

When Sasuke continued to just _look _at him, Tony sighed and stood up. "C'mon, kid. I'll show you my workshop. Maybe you'll see what I mean by science _then_."

Sasuke, for all his silent complaints regarding, well, _everything_, followed him.

o.o.o.o.o

**April 7, 2003****  
><strong>**3:27 PM****  
><strong>**Malibu**

Technology, for all that Tony loved it, wasn't everyone's schtick, and as a kid who'd grown up with less advanced tech than most western countries (ignoring the fact that the country he came from had a _very_ healthy economy), Sasuke was pretty unused to all the stuff in Tony's workshop.

That didn't stop him from putting his angry glare back on after only a few seconds of astonishment. The plane and projectors and other tech were strange enough, but the robot arms really took the cake; that didn't mean Sasuke was going to let himself get carried away and surprised by every little thing.

Hence the ever-present brooding and glaring.

(Years later, when Sasuke was better-adjusted and more acceptable as a subject of teasing, Tony would inform him of the fact that he had what was commonly known as a resting bitch face.)

"Hey, DUM-E. Have you met Sasuke yet? Say hi." Tony rubbed a hand along DUM-E's outermost parts, checking for any loose parts or overheating. The habit was an old and usually useless one, but he still did it.

The robot arm swept around and, beeping in a pattern that seemed to connote some level of happiness, reached out and hovered just in front of Sasuke.

The boy just stared at it as though it were possessed.

"Go on, shake DUM-E's hand." Tony gestured, and Sasuke seemed to get what he meant without understanding the words themselves, because he reached out and shook DUM-E's hand anyway, an irritated look on his face.

"Great! Now, come over here, I've got spare paper and pencils and things because most people like that sort of thing for basic math, right? Anyway, show me what you got, and I'll see how much I need to teach you." Tony clapped his hands and rubbed them together, almost excited.

As it turned out, Tony had rather a lot to teach his nephew.

o.o.o.o.o

**April 9, 2003****  
><strong>**10:00 AM****  
><strong>**Malibu**

"Mr. Stark, it may be a good idea to stop fidgeting." Pepper whispered, watching as the car rolled up the drive. Pepper herself had taken care of the interview, to deflect suspicion from Tony (because as known as Pepper was in some circles, she certainly wasn't as high-profile as Tony himself).

"But what if the NDA isn't enough? Or if she's actually an assassin disguised as a nanny? Or if—"

"Breathe." Pepper reminded him, her polite yet distant smile, the one that said 'welcome to the mansion and please be aware of the fact that we can have you kicked out and sued to the moon and back if we need to,' still perfectly in place.

"Right." Tony muttered, his eyes tracking the woman that got out of the car on the drive. It wasn't an old car, but it certainly didn't scream money the way his did; it was a good car for casual outings with a kid that the public didn't need to know was important.

The woman herself had a similar look to her: pretty and reasonably young, but unassuming and easily looked over. Tan, with dark hair, hazel eyes, and nondescript bone structure, the woman just straddled the edge of racial ambiguity (though Tony would have put his money on either white, Latina, or some combination thereof).

She smiled and held out her hand as she reached the top of the steps, and Tony cautiously shook it. "You'd be Ms. Douglas, then?"

"Yes, that's me." The woman nodded, letting go. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Mr. Stark."

"Right." Tony glanced at Pepper, still wary. At a small nod from her, he mentally sighed and gestured at the door. "How about we go inside so you can meet my nephew?"

"That's perfectly fine with me." Ms. Douglas said, following several paces behind Tony and Pepper, hands clasped in front of her. Tony found her slightly creepy, but he found most people a little creepy when he first met them, because they were all artificially polite and smile-y and urgh.

(That was part of why Pepper had caught his interest at first, after all.)

Sasuke was sitting at the bar/kitchen counter, painstakingly filling out a language worksheet. He didn't look up until he finished whatever line he was working on, and Tony could see the suspicion in his eyes, even from where he was.

"If I may?" Ms. Douglas muttered, and Tony took a step forward, the translation program automatically flickering to life on the wall.

"Sasuke, this is Ms. Douglas. She's going to talk to you for a bit, and if you get along well enough, then she'll be taking care of you while I'm at work from now on." At work, which included inventing time and business trips and meetings with the government and board and, yeah, even the occasional night out.

Sasuke's eyes tracked over to the woman in question, and he nodded, face carefully blank. Tony would have been surprised, but he didn't doubt that the kid had been in situations where being polite to visitors was a necessity; Sasuke had been the son of a Clan Head, and in a place like Konoha, that was important.

"_Hello, I am Douglas Rachel._" The woman spoke and moved slowly and carefully, every move carefully calculated. "_You are Uchiha Sasuke, correct?_"

Sasuke was quick to recover from his shock, but not, Tony noted, quick enough to hide it. So, someone speaking Japanese was surprising enough to take Sasuke off guard? That… would need to be rectified.

In any case, Sasuke nodded as soon as he recovered. "_You are going to be my… caretaker, yes?"_

Ms. Douglas nodded. "_I am currently the mostly likely to receive the position. I've taken care of children like you before._"

Sasuke's expression became guarded far, far too quickly for a boy his age. "_Like me how?_"

"_High profile children with memories of things no one should experience. Soldiers, too._" Ms. Douglas's voice was low, and for all that Tony didn't really think bringing up Sasuke's traumas was a good idea, stating it so plainly and being so up-front about it was probably the best way to gain Sasuke's trust. "_From what I've been told, you fit all those criteria, or will in the future._"

Sasuke nodded, not taking his eyes off her. "_I am in training to become a shinobi._"

Ms. Douglas smiled and sat down next to him. _"That's a difficult career path, I hear. Say, why don't you tell me about yourself for now? You can tell me all the things that numbers on papers and hearsay can't."_

Tony leaned against the wall, arms crossed and fingers tapping out a nervous rhythm against his elbow. "You think this is a good idea?"

"She signed the NDA, Mr. Stark." Pepper reminded him, and it always amused him, how she kept calling him that even at the point where she'd been working for him long enough to have become one of his closest (only) friends. "And you need to hire a nanny if you want to get anything done. This is the best idea we have, and you _know_ that."

Tony made a small noise in the back of his throat. Was it really _his_ fault that he was this paranoid? He'd been kidnapped plenty as a kid, and the entire reason _Sasuke_ ended up with Tony was because of the murder of hundreds of people. A little caution was _healthy_, really.

"They seem to be getting along, at least." Pepper noted, and Tony had to admit she was right. Sasuke wasn't exactly _open_, but he was talking about as freely as he did with Tony and Pepper, and that was a pretty good sign. He was actually talking _more_, if only because Ms. Douglas could speak his language.

"So… trial period, then? A week? A month?" Tony didn't know how long to make it. His own nannies had always quit pretty quickly, for a variety of reasons.

"I'd say two weeks." Pepper told him, sifting through some papers. "The bodyguards will be coming by the main building for interviews tomorrow. You can take care of those yourself, I presume?"

Tony gave an exaggerated shiver, but nodded. "Yeah, I can do it."

Pepper put a hand on his shoulder and smiled softly. "He'll be fine. Just keep doing what you've been doing for the past few days, hang out with him for a few hours a day, maybe more on weekends, and you'll be fine."

"…God, I hope you're right."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Guess who decided to pump out a chapter today? That's right. Me.**

**TWO THINGS:**

**ONE: Rachel Douglas is not an original character. ****She is using an alias, yes, but she is a native to the Marvel Comics.**

**TWO: I am considering posting this story to AO3 as well. What do you all think?**

**Anyway, sorry about the little blurb about Doctor Who. There will be more references in this story (Sasuke will be closeted about it as he gets older, but he will be a Whovian at heart), but Doctor Who will remain entirely fictional within the context of this 'verse; no Doctor Who crossovers here.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	8. The Therapist

**April 12, 2003****  
><strong>**11:28 AM****  
><strong>**Malibu**

"_This is ridiculous._" Sasuke muttered, looking like the picture of a huffy seven-year-old.

"This is something you need." Tony replied, scrolling down a page on his laptop.

"_I do not_."

"You're a traumatized kid whose current main goal in life is fratricide. Yes. You need therapy." Tony had tried explaining it more fully before, had tried to make sure that Sasuke understood fully just why this was so necessary.

Unfortunately, Tony's patience was quick to wane, and Sasuke was too stubborn for his own good, so by this point, Tony short answers were mostly automatic by now. Sasuke wasn't going to listen to him anyway, so the answers were no longer anything he put effort into.

Besides, Tony wasn't the one that scarily efficient in getting Sasuke to go. Tony was the one trying to compromise, offering to talk to the therapist before Sasuke, offering to have the bodyguards do a full pat-down, offering different rooms for the conversation to go on in, offering to make sure Tony and Pepper were the only other people in the building when it was time to speak with the woman in question (that one had actually been agreed to by all parties; Happy, Ms. Douglas, Obie, and the bodyguards were all either outside or had the day off).

Pepper was the one laying down the law.

Sasuke didn't hate Pepper. He respected and resented her, but he didn't hate her. Nonetheless, the glare he shot her as she lead the therapist in was twice as venomous as the one that he shot Tony.

The woman was tall, blonde, and wearing a little too much make-up for Tony's tastes. She was, however, one of the few licensed therapists with experience in helping children that were victims of unusual circumstances. Her most frequent clients, from what her résumé said, were either child mutants, the children or siblings of mutants, or even families of mutants.

(And as only Tony could tell, a handful of 'escapees' from the Hidden Continent.)

Given how rare any of those were, Dr. Frost was just about the only one in her field outside the Elemental Nations themselves, and even among the few others, she was the youngest.

"Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts." Emma Frost nodded at him and Pepper, then turned her attention towards Sasuke. "_And you must be Uchiha Sasuke._"

_Intuitive multilingual_, the paper had said, listing it as a subset of some strangely powerful telepathic mutant bla-bla-bla… Tony tried to ignore mutant abilities when they weren't causing him trouble, because they really were almost as ridiculous as ninjas. At least telepathy was somewhat understandable, and a lengthy conversation with Dr. Frost over the phone had assured him that she would be limiting her abilities whenever she came to the house, for everyone's sakes, unless someone asked her to do otherwise. Mind-reading was definitely _not_ something Tony wanted happening, but hey.

NDAs and the ability to sue someone into the ground if he felt like it had to come in handy sometime, right?

Sasuke nodded, eyes trained on Dr. Frost's. "_They said you were like a Yamanaka._"

"_A… what?_" Dr. Frost tilted her head, a friendly look on her face. She clearly had a lot of experience with kids, not that she was all that old herself; must have graduated young. "_I'm afraid I don't know what a Yamanaka is._"

Sasuke frowned, thinking it over. "_They're a clan back in Konoha, and most of them are mind-readers, and some of them are… psychologists."_ Sasuke stumbled over one of the words, but continued valiantly. "_You kind of look like one_."

Dr. Frost shrugged, and Tony made himself ignore the way her chest moved, staring at the wall instead (_she's twenty-three_, his brain reminded him, and yeah, the difference wasn't _disgustingly_ big, but messing around with his nephew/cousin's therapist was _not_ a responsible course of action, so he had to refuse to even be tempted).

"_For all I know, I may be related to them, way, way back._" Dr. Frost gestured at the couches. "_Would you like to sit down somewhere more comfortable?"_

Sasuke stared at her suspiciously, and then nodded.

"It could be worse." Pepper noted, and Tony couldn't disagree.

He glanced down at the résumé he still held in his hands, and his eyes lingered on the address:

_Dr. Emma Frost, Psy.D.  
><em>_Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters__, Room 105  
>1407 Graymalkin Lane<br>Westchester County, NY 10461  
>USA<em>

o.o.o.o.o

**April 23, 2003****  
><strong>**4:21 AM****  
><strong>**Malibu**

Tony woke with a start as the sound of screaming pierced right next to his ear. He shot up in bed, and the screaming grew quieter.

"JARVIS?"

"You requested I wake you if Sasuke were to exhibit signs of a nightmare." JARVIS answered in that stilted way of his. Tony was constantly working on JARVIS's programming to make him more human and _wow_ now was _not_ the time to start thinking about that.

"So you projected his screaming here. Good enough." Tony flung the covers off of himself and, only pausing for half a second to slip his slippers on, rushed out of the room.

(This wasn't the first time Sasuke had had nightmares, but it was the first time that the nightmares had lasted long enough for Tony to get there in time to do anything.)

"C'mon, kid, wake up." It honestly hit Tony _hard_ to see the kid this messed up, and the nightmares were the cherry at the top of the shitstorm cake. After several seconds of just trying to wake him up verbally, Tony finally just reached out and shook Sasuke's shoulder with one hand.

The reaction was instantaneous, Sasuke's hands flying out and gripping Tony's arm in what probably would have been a good way to break his elbow if the hands had switched positions. After a few seconds of silence, Sasuke finally spoke, rasping and still teary and pushing Tony away as hard as he could (which, for a kid that young, was really, really hard).

"Nokose."

Tony didn't know what that meant, but he could definitely tell what the shove meant. Slowly, he started backing away.

"Nokose!"

He sped up a little, already planning on what to do once he was out.

"Ore o hottoite!"

Tony got out, closed the door, and leaned against it. Slowly, he slid down until he was sitting on the floor, the back of his head pressed against the door. Through the thin wood, he heard the sounds of Sasuke beginning to sob as silently as he could, probably into a pillow.

Shit.

Tony knew, mostly, what taking care of a child entailed. He'd always been at least a little prepared, if only in case of an accident with one of his many one-night stands ended with a bun in the oven. If Sasuke had been a lot younger, or a lot older, or his family had died any other way, Tony would have been able to deal with him a lot more easily.

But Sasuke was a seven-year-old with trust issues and PTSD and revenge fantasies, and Tony wasn't, in any way, prepared for how to deal with that.

(Thank god he hadn't seen any hint of the eyes.)

Dr. Frost had been helpful, certainly, and they'd already set up a schedule for her to meet with Sasuke twice a week for the foreseeable future, and she'd given him tips and hints on how to help Sasuke through these problems, but that didn't mean that Tony was ready to care for a child this broken.

But he tried. He tried, and that would have to be enough. It needed to be enough.

So Tony got up. He got up, and he went and heated up a mug of milk and brought it back to the room, because he didn't know what to really do, but this, at least, couldn't hurt.

He knocked on the door. "I'm coming in."

There was silence on the other side, and Tony wracked his head for the right translation. "Um… Ore ga… dete kuru?"

This time, there was a sniffle on the other side, followed by an angry-sounding mumble that was too muffled for Tony to understand what Sasuke was saying. With a sigh, Tony pushed open the door.

Good news: Sasuke wasn't yelling and throwing things at him anymore.

Bad news: Sasuke still had tear tracks on his face and was curled up in the fetal position, glaring at Tony.

"I've got milk." Tony offered. "Ah… gyuunyuu."

(This word, amongst others, had amused Tony far, far too much when he learned it.)

(He couldn't find it in himself to even grimace, let alone smile, right now.)

Sasuke sat up, glaring at Tony, but resigned to the fact that he couldn't make the man actually leave. Tony held the mug out, and, quite slowly, Sasuke reached out and took it into his own hands. He sat on the bed, staring into the milk, and Tony slowly sat down next to him.

"…Why?"

Tony looked at Sasuke, and mulled over the question. "Well… why what? Why did I bring the milk? Why did I take you in? Why did you and your family suffer the way you did?"

Sasuke curled in on himself, knuckles turning white around where he was holding the mug. "Why… milk?"

_Avoidance_.

"Heard it helps with bad dreams." Tony answered weakly. "Warm kids' drink and all that."

Sasuke didn't respond, and Tony chose to think he was probably trying to translate, not just ignoring him for the sake of it. A few seconds later, the translator phone was out again, and Sasuke was looking at him in askance. Tony obliged, repeating his answer, and almost chuckled when Sasuke started glaring at him again. "It's true."

"Why…" Sasuke trailed off, frustrated, and switched back to Japanese; Tony didn't blame him. "_Why are you taking care of me?"_

"Because you're family. Because you're a kid. Because you've got no one else, and you've been through so much that I can't leave you alone. Because people have tried to break you, and you're barely holding on. Because you need someone, because I fit the criteria, because I have a duty, and because it's been a long time since I've had a family. Because I've only known you for less than three weeks and my first though when I look at you is already 'I gotta protect this kid.' Because you're my little cousin and you need me and I care."

Sasuke didn't speak for the rest of the night.

o.o.o.o.o

**April 23, 2003****  
><strong>**12:20 PM****  
><strong>**Malibu**

Sasuke wasn't related to Tony on the Stark side, but that didn't seem to matter; math and science were an adequate distraction that he chose himself anyway.

"_I do not understand_." Sasuke said, and Tony looked up from the blueprints he was editing, glad that he could at least translate that little without too much trouble, and gladder still that Sasuke was speaking of his own volition again.

"Can't understand what?" The fact that he could understand that much didn't mean he was going to start speaking Japanese himself, yet, though. He wasn't quite _that_ confident in his language skills yet.

"_This problem. The wording confuses me_." Sasuke glared at Tony, as though it were his fault, which, yeah, it probably was.

"Okay, then, bratling." Tony rolled over on the wheelie office chair he favored at the moment, sliding up next to Sasuke, who shifted away accordingly. "What's up?"

It was a simple problem, and Tony had it figured out before he even finished reading it, but for a seven-year-old that had only had standard education so far… well, maybe multiplication happened a bit later in most kids' educations than Tony had thought.

(Tony'd been there at the age of three, but basically everything he'd been told had said that bringing up something like that was a bad idea, personal experience included.)

As Tony tried to talk Sasuke through the concept of multiplication, he thought back to the little toys he'd been using to practice when he'd been learning the same concepts. He was fairly certain that he had used some little thing where, when you pushed the button with the problem on it, the answer showed up, and thought that might be helpful here.

Maybe.

Still, he had to talk to the kid about something, and while TV and Tony's work were alright as far as shallow things went, Tony really wanted to know a bit more about Sasuke himself.

"You feel like taking a break?" He asked, tapping a pencil against the desk. "You like tomatoes, right? I think we have some cherry tomatoes upstairs, and salads aren't too hard to make; even _I_ know how to make them, so we can have that."

Sasuke's stare was growing more and more deadpan, and Tony felt some part of him relax when the kid nodded. Getting Sasuke interested in anything the days after he had nightmares was a disaster in and of itself, and Tony really didn't know what to do, other than, just maybe…

"JARVIS, get Ms. Douglas and Pepper down here. We're going to the beach."

Douglas could take care of the disguises (yet another thing on that super-nanny résumé of hers). And Pepper? Well, someone had to take care of company emergencies while he was gone. She'd get a bonus, or overtime, or something like that.

Whatever.

It was time to go to the beach.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I would like to mention that some things (like Sasuke's nightmare and the beach episode) aren't actually being told to the Avengers and SHIELD by Tony in 2012. We, as the readers, see all the pertinent stuff happening in 2003 and on, but Tony's actually rushing through a bunch of the story, skimming and skipping information when necessary.**

**Emma Frost has a psychology degree in Earth-616, but in that universe, it is with a focus on sexology. During **_**House of M**_**, however, we're shown that she could have become a child therapist under different circumstances, basically doing what she's doing with Sasuke here (in **_**House of M**_**, she was working with Franklin Richards, whose parents had died in that timeline). Within the context of this story (which is Earth-199999, for the most part, with bits and pieces from other 'verses and fused with Naruto), she graduated young, her powers making it easier for her to learn, and achieved her doctorate in children's psychology by the age of twenty. At that point, she went into working with children that either had superpowers or were related to those with superpowers and had suffered from some level of PTSD. The Yamanaka thing was meant as a joke, but it will be brought up again when people call up certain questions regarding shinobi clans and the X-gene later.**

**Please stop asking who Ms. Douglas is; when I've set it up as a mystery like this, it's a little rude to just ask. If you want to discuss your theories, bringing up hints you thought you might have caught and telling me how you're piecing them together, then that's fine, but just outright asking me makes me feel as though no one's getting the point of it.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	9. The Beach

**A/N: I'm sorry about the little discourse about Doctor Who monsters; you can skim past it, since it's mostly just so I can make an Ultron joke. Which is barely a joke and more just a call forward to Tony's overcompetence in the field of robots and artificial intelligence.**

o.o.o.o.o

**April 23, 2003**  
><strong>12:52 PM<strong>  
><strong>Malibu<strong>

"Stay still, please, Mr. Stark." Ms. Douglas had a tin of some weird white _stuff_ in her hands, and she was using it to white-out Tony's hair and eyebrows, already having bronzed his skin with some water-proof, SPF 15 make-up that Tony didn't know the name of.

He was going to look _old_.

"Your fingers are on my eyebrows, and it's weird." Tony didn't like having people touch him unless it was for sexy-times, and this was decidedly not sexy.

"I'm nearly finished, Mr. Stark." The manhandling continued for several more seconds, and then she stepped back and eyed her handiwork. She nodded. "That would be enough to divert suspicion, hopefully."

Tony looked at the mirror and pouted, his fears confirmed. "I look _old_."

"Yes, and as a result, people likely won't recognize you, especially not on a beach that isn't frequented by people outside your tax bracket very often." Ms. Douglas reminded him, packing up the special effects makeup she'd used for the "magic."

"So only other rich people, then. Other rich people that see me often enough to recognize me." Tony moaned, melodramatic to the last. "Now I'm going to be recognized, _and_ I'm going to look old."

"Would you like me to add some liver spots and false wrinkles?" Ms. Douglas offered, sugary sweet, and Tony decided that she was literally the devil, because only the devil could act like that and not be weird about it.

"No. No liver spots. No wrinkles." Tony glanced over at Sasuke, who was mostly just staring at them, nonplussed. Given that the translator wasn't out, he probably didn't understand more than the occasional article adjective, but… well, tone said a lot. So did facial expression. "You okay there, kid?"

Sasuke had learned that particular phrase rather quickly, and the expression his face twisted itself into in response almost made Tony laugh. "Yes."

Ms. Douglas smiled softly, picking up the bag that held the beach supplies (Tony wasn't sure where it had come from, but he'd long ago resigned himself to the fact that the women in his life were probably hyper-competent alien robots from the future or something, because Pepper was the same way). "Ready when you are, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah. Let's go."

o.o.o.o.o

**April 23, 2003**  
><strong>1:24 PM<strong>  
><strong>Malibu<strong>

"Lucky we're this close to the ocean, and so far South, too." Ms. Douglas mused. She sat on a beach towel next to Tony, the both of them wearing sunglasses and watching Sasuke pick around in the sand a few feet from the water, too far away for the waves to do more than tickle his toes. If Tony knew that look, though, and he was pretty sure he did, then the boy would be building a fortress-like sand castle soon.

Ninjas. Ninjas with Stark relatives. Ninjas with ninja-y ninja training. Ninjas with science. Strategy. Trauma.

Of _course_ a siege-resistant tower would be on Sasuke's to-build list on the beach.

"I wouldn't have suggested it if it weren't warm enough." Tony commented. He was wearing a shirt, to hide the fact that he was not, in fact, an old man, and Ms. Douglas was wearing some sleeveless knee-length dress that was really way too modest for the beach and probably just right for a nanny.

Meh.

"I suppose."

Tony looked over at the woman he'd hired, eyebrow raised. "I know that tone. What's got you all mopey?"

"Mm?" Ms. Douglas glanced over, a smile tugging at the edge of her lips. "Memories, that's all. Memories and buried dreams."

Tony waited a few seconds for her to continue, and then, when it became clear that she wouldn't, began talking himself. "I haven't really known you very long. Doesn't really sound like something you tell people after just a week or two."

"It's not exactly a secret." Ms. Douglas's voice was strangely empty. "I wanted children once. But that's not something that seems like it's likely to ever work out for me, so I do my best to make sure the children that do exist in this world are taken care of."

Tony didn't press the issue. He wasn't sure what exactly the sentence was supposed to mean, but whatever it meant (hysterectomy? Multiple miscarriages? Some kind of poisoning that rendered her infertile? 'History' catching up to her?), it was clearly not an issue he was supposed to press. For all that he was an asshole, Tony _did_ know when to stop, and this was a _very good place to stop_.

"Right."

There was silence for several seconds, and then Ms. Douglas broke it like a wishbone. "And, if you don't mind me asking, what was your stance on children prior to Sasuke?"

"Wasn't sure. Wasn't ready. Kind of a thing that I was considering but not completely." Tony shrugged. "Always kept my options open just in case all my precautions weren't quite enough the one time it takes, but that never really happened. Only had one thing in mind, really, before Sasuke showed up."

"Oh?"

"If I had a daughter, I'd name her Eloise." Tony said, as though it was some kind of grand statement. "Not sure about the middle name. I'd probably leave that to whoever the mother was. Or the other father. Whichever. I just… I think I decided on that when I was twenty-four? I just really like the name."

"It's a fine name." Ms. Douglas assured him, as though he needed assuring. "And I'm sure that, when the time comes, your nephew will take to it quite well."

Tony snorted. "Yeah?"

"You know his history with his family better than I do. If you think he would be anything other than extremely protective of whatever child you have, no matter the other parent, then you are more foolish than I thought."

"Watch it." Tony said, though it had no bite. "I sign your paycheck."

"Ah, yes. Indeed you do." Ms. Douglas stood, strangely graceful. "I suppose I should do my job and go help Sasuke with his sand castle."

Tony levered himself to his feet and followed along. "Guess I'll see if I can teach him anything about structural engineering."

"It's sand."

"Doesn't matter."

o.o.o.o.o

**May 15, 2003**  
><strong>2:00 PM<strong>  
><strong>Malibu<strong>

"_The blue looks better._" Tony muttered, not quite comfortable with the words themselves yet. For all his discomfort, though, he got the annoyed look from Sasuke that had been half his goal, and watched as Sasuke switched colored pencils, fulfilling the other half.

"Better." Ms. Douglas commented, and when Tony looked up, he could see the amused look on both her face and Pepper's, and he mentally cursed them both. "But your accent is still rather glaring."

"At least it's understandable, right?" Tony groused. "That counts for something."

"If you say so, Mr. Stark." Pepper said in her picture-perfect-PA voice. "You have a meeting tomorrow, by the way."

"Can I skip?"

"No." Pepper smiled at him. "It's Research and Development, and even if you wanted to skip those usually, you've already skipped two meetings this week and skipping yet another would be a… very bad idea."

"Blargle." Tony muttered in lieu of an actual curse, mindful of the seven-year-old next to him. "Is Obie gonna be there?"

"I believe so." Pepper clicked through a few things on her computer, searching for something, probably an email. "There's a chance he might cancel, but he probably won't."

"Well, at least that's one good thing." Tony mumbled. It had been a while since he'd seen Obadiah, longer than Rhodey, even (and Rhodey was overseas and on duty at the moment, so that was quite some feat). If Tony wasn't mistaken, then Obadiah hadn't even met Sasuke yet, and that was obviously something that had to be fixed. "I can bring him by the house later and finally introduce these two."

"That'll be nice." Pepper, at least, new how important Obie was.

"Should I stay here tomorrow, or leave you to your family events?" Ms. Douglas asked, though it was mostly a question of whether she should stay out of the way or not; she was, technically, an au pair, living in the house with Tony and Sasuke, even if it was on the other side of the building. Granted, Tony hadn't ever imagined that his first offer to let a woman live in his home would be for an employee and not a life partner, but hey. Things always happened.

"Eh… Obie and I will probably end up drinking for a bit later on in the night, so you're free to come back around seven-ish." Tony ran the numbers in his head, estimating. Yeah, that sounded about right. He turned his attention back to Sasuke, who seemed very intent on filling in the diagram he was drawing. Tony was pretty sure it was a map of country boundaries detailing some decades-past war in Ninja Land, but he really didn't know, and so long as Sasuke cared to learn and it wasn't about killing people, then Tony figured it was probably alright. Still, though, all work and no play…

"Hey, Sasuke. Can you draw? Not just do this sort of stuff, but have you ever tried drawing?" _Like a normal kid_, Tony didn't add.

Sasuke blinked at him, glanced at the wall with the semi-permanent translation projection, and then eyed Tony with that half-lidded derision that a child should _not_ have been capable of but somehow _was._ After a second, said kid was pulling out a blank sheet of paper, grabbing a silver colored pencil, and…

Huh.

Not bad.

Definitely not a masterpiece by any means.

But not bad.

"A cyberman head?"

Sasuke nodded, slowly.

"They're your favorite monsters, then?"

Sasuke paused, and then shook his head, faster.

"Which villains do you like best, then? Or which ones do you think are the scariest?"

If Sasuke suddenly became nonverbal (was that a thing? PTSD could make people lose their ability to speak or refuse to do so, but Tony didn't know if it could happen a good two months after the traumatic incident itself), then Tony was going to have even more trouble communicating than with just the language barrier.

Maybe Sasuke was just naturally quiet. Or… well, maybe the quiet wasn't entirely bad.

(He'd have to research that.)

"What was it? The Sensorites? The Daleks? The Great Intelligence?" Sure, the Second Doctor enemies were _weird_, usually, but the Great Intelligence was… creepy.

"WOTAN." Sasuke answered, cutting Tony off before he could go any further.

"Huh." Tony scratched his chin. "And why's that?"

Sasuke sent him a baleful look and pointed at the ceiling.

"…You think JARVIS is going to try to kill us? He's a pretty good program, but I haven't quite gotten him to the point of actual AI-ness yet. I mean, I'm trying, but even when I do, I don't think he's going to try to take over the world."

"_A different one might_." Sasuke muttered. "_You make a lot of robots. One might go crazy and take over the world._"

"Bah. If I make a robot with enough access to weapons that it can take down the world on its own, then I'll have something like that of my own, and I'll be really proud because at that point, it'll be _self-replicating_ because any conquering overlord needs minions."

"…_I'm going to ask Pepper to not let you near evil scientist things anymore_." Sasuke muttered, going back to the cyberman drawing.

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Really bad Ultron reference via Cybermen and WOTAN.**

**Also, I started with the 2005 series, so it kind of took me by surprise to see the Great Intelligence popping up as a Second Doctor monster. Didn't realize the history reached that far back.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	10. The Birthdays

**May 23, 2003  
>2:00 PM<br>Malibu**

Tony flopped down on the couch, and leaned back, whining. "_Pepper…_"

"Yes?" Pepper was looking through some paperwork. _Boring_.

"The Board is being annoying again."

"Hm." Pepper didn't look away from the paperwork she was flipping through. "How so?"

"They want me to find someone and get _married_." Tony whispered, as though it were some great secret. "And I don't want to."

"Well, I've never been married, so I can't say if it would really be as bad as you think." Pepper passed him the clipboard and pen. "Read it and sign here. Initial here, here, and here."

"Fine." Tony pouted as he did as he was asked. "Rhodey's not married. _Obie's_ not even married. Why do I have to get married?"

"Because you're a public face, Mr. Stark." Pepper answered, already going on to the next set of papers. "Getting married would look good for the company, and if the CEO looks good…"

"Then stocks go up, I know." Tony stuck his tongue out, and then tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. After a few seconds, he changed gears and turned to look at the kitchen. "Sasuke! _Do you plan on getting married when you're older?_"

Sasuke looked up from his 'homework' with a look of surprise and, Tony was a bit dismayed to see, a hint of nervousness.

"…Yes." Sasuke bit his lip, thinking hard as he tried to find the right words in English. "I need to… make my family bigger?"

_I need to continue the family line/restore the clan_. Tony translated mentally. "_You don't seem to like the idea._"

Sasuke made a face. "Girls are…"

Words failed him.

That was okay.

Tony could fill in the blanks, and those blanks mostly involved a bunch of cooties. Sasuke was a little young to know anything else yet.

"_That's okay. You have time_." Tony grinned, then scanned the room for his last victim. "Ms. Douglas! What about you? You ever get married? Engaged? Anything like that?"

"I'm a widow, actually." Ms. Douglas's smile was frosty. "And I spent a very long time in a committed relationship that could not be legitimized by the government."

Sasuke was frowning up at her, no longer paying attention to the work in front of him. When he spoke, Tony welcomed the distraction from the awkwardness. "Widow? Le…le-gi-ti-mize?"

Ms. Douglas repeated the sentence in Japanese, and realization dawned on Sasuke's face. "You mean you could not marry him?"

"Her." Ms. Douglas corrected. "And that little word was the problem. There aren't many countries that have legal same-sex marriages."

Sasuke tilted his head, nose scrunched up in a look midway between confusion and disgust. "But… there are plenty of people like that in Konoha? And they are married."

"Well, I was not capable of traveling to the Elemental Nations at the time, nor was I aware of that law." Ms. Douglas smiled down at Sasuke and carded a hand through his hair. "It's been a number of years since she died, anyway. There's not much that information could do for me, now."

As though feeling the silent question, Mrs. Douglas spoke shortly, refusing to look in Tony and Pepper's direction. "She died of cancer. My husband was…" She trailed off, lips pursed.

"You don't have to tell us," Pepper said gently, though she didn't look up. Tony's eyes had fallen to the papers in his hands, vocal cords seemingly paralyzed. He was _not_ good at awkward situations unless he had free reign to insult everyone in the room.

The people currently in the room were _not_ people he wanted to insult.

"It's fine. It was just a very complicated situation, and I'm not altogether proud of how I handled my part." Ms. Douglas's smile was brittle, but at least she didn't seem very angry.

"Right. So. Moving on. The board." Tony paused. "It's composed of idiots."

"I'm aware, Mr. Stark." And then Pepper just shoved another paper under his nose.

"No, Pepper, you don't _understand_—"

"My apologies, Mr. Stark, but I appear to have contracted a case of involuntary selective hearing. I'm afraid you'll have to tell me later." Pepper smiled down at her work, well aware that Tony wouldn't even frown at her, let along consider firing her as so many other bosses would have.

They really did make a good team.

o.o.o.o.o

**May 29, 2003  
>5:52 PM<br>Malibu**

"He'll be fine." Pepper handed Tony his tie as he came out of his room, mostly-dressed. "This is something you do every year, and even he understands that you need to do this to keep people from getting curious about what you're doing."

"It still makes me feel guilty." Tony pursed his lips as he knotted his tie. He remembered being that age, having to deal with being left at home during events. Granted, there had been plenty that he'd been forced to go to as well, and he'd hated those, but being left behind had been even worse.

"You already promised to spend all of tomorrow with Sasuke." Pepper reminded him, holding up his jacket so that he could slip in. "And as much as you care for him, you need to remember that Sasuke's still very… reluctant to grow close to you."

Tony hid his wince. Hell, the situation was plenty understandable. "Yeah, I get it. It's still… not something I'm all that happy about."

"Mr. Stark, this is just another party, and you've gone to plenty of those since Sasuke started living here. I don't think you need to worry about him quite that much. Just make sure you're free to spend time with him tomorrow. Besides," Pepper smiled, "Do you really remember caring about anyone's birthday other than your own at that age?"

"Don't remind me. I'm getting old." Tony made a face. "I'm getting _old_ now."

"Sir, if I may point out that you're only thirty-three?" Pepper smiled, even though she was eyeing him rather critically. "You aren't very old."

"It's okay, Pepper. I'm old. I'm going to be, like, a silver fox or whatever." Tony fiddled with his cuff-links. "You're sure I have to go?"

"Obie will be there, and so will Justin Hammer."

"_Hammer?_"

"The board decided that, since this party was a more public event, it would be helpful to bring in some of the people we do business with. Besides, I've seen you around Hammer before. You two just take pot-shots at each other the whole time. Well, you do, at least, and you seem to enjoy it." Pepper smoothed out one of the wrinkles on Tony's lapels. "Now, Happy's waiting outside with the car."

"Right. I'll see you there?"

"Yes, you will."

o.o.o.o.o

**June 14, 2003  
>8:05 AM<br>Malibu (Office)**

"I just don't know what to get him, Pep." Tony dithered as he paced around his office. "I mean, I know what he _likes_, but I still don't like the idea of giving him any weapons, and I get the feeling that he wouldn't _let_ himself play with any of the toys that we can get based off of the books or shows he likes, and science-y stuff is basically just 'ask and ye shall receive' at the moment."

"You have over a month to decide, Mr. Stark. Which, might I remind you, is a month longer than you have to put together a proposal for next month's R&D budget." Pepper tapped a pen against her clipboard. "And if I may make a suggestion? Dr. Frost mentioned that Sasuke was doing well. While I doubt anyone would be happy with giving him weapons right now, it may not be a bad idea to start easing him back into his shinobi lifestyle."

"Pepper…?"

"I'm not saying you should give him weaponry or get him back into outright learning how to kill, but maybe just something to show him that you're starting to trust him with his own life again." Pepper shrugged.

"That… actually, that makes a lot of sense." Tony leaned back in his seat and thought it over. "I… this is going to sound a bit weird, but what about Sun Tzu's 'Art of War'? It's not that violent, I think, but it could teach him strategy and life-lessons, and I know a lot of people use it for everyday things and not warfare."

"That sounds like a great idea, but I would suggest running it by Dr. Frost first." Pepper finally handed the clipboard over, and Tony began skimming through it. "Good intentions don't change the fact that, as much as something may seem like a good idea, you are not qualified in that field, and making decisions based on vague information will eventually lead to some mistake."

"Yeah, but you were _right_, though. It's actually a pretty good idea." Tony bit his lip. "I guess I could ask Dr. Frost the next time she comes over."

As it turned out, she approved wholeheartedly.

o.o.o.o.o

**July 7, 2003  
>8:05 AM<br>Malibu**

"Pepper, can you please handle whatever kind of party we're going to have for Sasuke, because I'm pretty sure I'll end up getting it wrong and you're the only one I trust with this sort of thing." Tony babbled this out very quickly and without much breath.

"…Mr. Stark, while I am sure I would be able to handle this, wouldn't Ms. Douglas be a better choice? She does spend more time with him than I do. She's closer to him than I am." Pepper spoke hesitantly. "She's spent more time with him over the past three months than anyone barring perhaps you."

"I don't know how to ask her without insulting her, and I know that's not something I'm usually worried about, but I don't want to have to hire another nanny."

"Because the less people that know about Sasuke, the better?"

"Yeah." Tony rubbed the back of his neck. "I just… I remember the kinds of parties I had as a kid, and I hated them, because they were mostly just friends of my dad's that got an excuse to come over, and some of them were okay, but there was never anyone my age there, and the other parties were all publicity stunts, and I couldn't do either of those for Sasuke even if I wanted to, so… I don't know how to host a birthday party for an eight-year-old."

"I'll talk to her." Pepper said, and then raised a hand before Tony could thank her. "But, if I can make a suggestion? Ask her to walk you through the process so that you can do it yourself once you need to."

"…That's probably a good idea." Tony admitted. "Though I can't say I'll be any good."

"All you need to do is try. Aren't you supposed to be the Da Vinci of our time? You can figure out a simple party, right?"

"Science-y smarts are not the same as social-y smarts. Or family smarts." Tony reminded her. "But I _can_ try."

"Yes you can."

o.o.o.o.o

**July 23, 2003  
>7:13 AM<br>Malibu**

"Happy Birthday!" Tony opened the door to Sasuke's room, then deftly dodged the small toy (a rubber ball) that came hurtling at his head. Well, ninja genes bred true or something. Oh well. "You're eight years old now! Aren't you glad?"

Eight wasn't exactly a significant age in most places, but it was still another year to add to Sasuke's count, and surviving another year actually _had_ been something of an achievement for the boy. Given the dirty look he was giving Tony right now, he wasn't appreciating being reminded of that fact.

"It is early. Why are you not asleep?" Sasuke scrunched up his nose. "Or working? It is… Wednesday."

"It is also your birthday, so I'm calling in sick today." Tony put the wrapped present on Sasuke's bed with a grin. "So, happy birthday, and here's your gift."

Sasuke blinked at Tony, but rather than eyeing him in suspicion, just turned curious eyes on the package. "Gift?"

"Gift. Present. A thing that people give you on holidays." Tony gestured at the shiny wrapping paper. "Go ahead. Open it."

Sasuke shook his head as though to get rid of the cobwebs, and then picked the package up. "…later. Food first."

"You're not getting cake for breakfast." Tony immediately said, because that was something he remembered seeing in books and TV shows and stories from Pepper and Rhodey about younger cousins.

"…Bacon?"

"Not just bacon. Bacon and eggs work?"

"Yes… if there are tomatoes."

"Bacon and eggs and tomatoes it is!" Tony held a hand out to Sasuke with a grin. "You want a piggy back ride? I won't complain about it wrinkling my clothes, I promise."

Sasuke rolled his eyes (success!) and pushed his way past Tony, present held loosely in his hands.

Tony outright whistled as they made their way down, and waved hello to Pepper and Ms. Douglas as he got to the kitchen. "Bacon and eggs today! Oh, and tomatoes."

"I'll take care of that." Ms. Douglas said, already moving about to fry the meal. She pulled out a package from her pocket and placed it on the counter at Sasuke's usual seat. "_Happy Birthday, Sasuke._"

"_Thank you_." Sasuke sat at the counter, staring at his hands and swinging his legs where they hung from the stool.

"Happy birthday." Pepper added, and passed over a parcel of her own. "How does it feel to be one year older?"

"…It is a…" Sasuke screwed his face up and looked as though he was trying to remember a difficult word. "A miracle."

Pepper's smile stiffened, but she patted his shoulder and sat down next to him. "Well, you've got your whole life ahead of you, right? You got a chance, and now you can make the most of it."

"I guess." Sasuke looked down at the presents, and then pulled Pepper's towards him. He began picking at the wrapping paper, and pulled out a book. It was in English, but visibly children's literature. He looked at the title and began sounding it out. "H… Harry Potter and the… Phi-lo-so-pher's Stone?"

"A few of my cousins have been reading this series." Pepper began explaining the choice. "It started coming out a few years ago, and that's the first book. There's also a movie, but I figured it would be good for you to have something interesting to practice reading English. It's not exactly similar to the things I've seen you watching before, but I thought you might enjoy it."

"Thank you, Ms. Pepper." Sasuke put the book to the side, but his eyes lingered, and Tony was glad to see the spark of interest in them.

"Nice choice." Tony whispered into Pepper's ear. He watched as Sasuke pulled Ms. Douglas's gift closer and began slitting the paper to get it off. "I haven't read it yet, but I've heard a lot about it. Isn't the end a bit…?"

"I read it first to make sure it was child-friendly, or close to, and asked Dr. Frost as well. There's some violence towards the end, but the enemy is pretty clear-cut and the morality is still pretty black-and-white." Pepper answered. "It should be fine."

"Huh." Tony watched as Sasuke opened the black box that had been inside the paper, and pulled out a circular metal contraption and a string. He looked rather confused, but Tony could feel some childish glee rising up in him.

"What is this?"

"It's a gyroscope!" Tony darted around the table and sat down next to Sasuke with a grin. The room was filling with the smell of eggs and bacon by now. "Do you want me to show you how to use it?"

Sasuke nodded silently, and watched as Tony threaded a string through the hole in the axle, wound it up, and then set the centerpiece spinning. Carefully, he set the whole thing down on the table and let it stand upright on its own, and then handed the string to Sasuke. "Hold this out and keep it taught."

Sasuke did as he was asked, eyes staring at the spinning metal. Tony picked the gyroscope up and, ever so carefully, put it down on the string, where it stayed, balancing upright perfectly.

"How?" Sasuke asked, tilting the string from one side to the other.

"Physics! I'll teach you about centrifugal forces and all that later if you want." Tony clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Seriously, though, the physics that's based on spinning and other circle-y stuff is weird but interesting."

"Aa." Sasuke continued to stare at the gyroscope, seemingly entranced.

"Wait, one more trick." Tony took the gyroscope, which was still spinning, then held it sideways and looped the string around one end. He lifted it up off the table, and watched as Sasuke's eyes widened at the way that the gyroscope didn't fall. Sure, he'd seen plenty of weird tech in Tony's lab… but the gyroscope _wasn't _complicated; it was just a wheel, axle, and frame, and that made it all the more impressive. Tony was actually pretty impressed by the gift: it was both childish enough to be fun for a kid Sasuke's age, yet also science-y enough that it didn't seem like an insult.

"Breakfast is served." Ms. Douglas laid out a pair of plates for Sasuke and Tony, then went and got her own and Pepper's as well.

"_Thank you, Ms. Douglas._" Sasuke said, and there was warmth in his voice, even if it sounded a little stilted and awkward.

"_You're welcome_." Ms. Douglas smiled and pointed at Tony's gift. "_There's one more, though, so as soon as you're done with your breakfast, you can see to it as well."_

Sasuke nodded, then glanced over at Tony and down at the red-wrapped present on the table. He quickly dug into his food, ignoring the adults as they talked about plans for the rest of the day. The food was polished off quickly enough (well, there might have been a bit of egg left, but the bacon and tomatoes were _totally_ all gone), and then Sasuke started fiddling with the packaging, not particularly willing to draw attention to himself, just waiting for the conversation to peter out and turn back to him.

(The conversation did end quickly enough, if only because the adults had all been watching him out of the corners of their eyes the whole meal.)

Sasuke opened the paper as slowly as he had with the other two, and then blinked in surprise down at the object he held in his hands. Well, two objects. Two books, one in English, and one in Japanese.

"_The Art of War, by Sun Tzu_." Sasuke stared. "_I've heard of this book, but… you said I'm not supposed to look at anything involving fighting or war until Dr. Frost says it's okay._"

"_She did_." Tony answered. "_You're not going to start training again or anything, but I trust you enough to let you start looking at this sort of thing and some of your gorier history stuff again._"

Sasuke looked at Tony, and then down at the book again, and finally just got up from his chair and came closer. Tony raised an eyebrow as Sasuke didn't look up from the book in his hands, but completely froze up, face stuck in an expression of complete surprise, when Sasuke (slowly, hesitantly, stiltedly) leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Tony's waist.

Oh.

Sasuke was hugging him.

Tony looked down and carefully brought his hands up to hug Sasuke back, one hand petting his head like a particularly large cat. He looked in askance at Pepper and Ms. Douglas ('is this really happening?'), but that surprise was nothing compared to when Sasuke spoke.

"Thank you, Uncle Tony."

Uncle.

Sasuke had called him _Uncle_.

Three months, and he finally…

Tony grinned, wide and slightly silly, and hugged Sasuke as tightly as he could without it hurting his nephew. "Happy Birthday, kiddo."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: This ended up much longer than expected. But hey! Sasuke's finally eight, and there are at least a handful of people that might be starting to figure out who the mysterious nanny is.**

**And look! A whole chapter without any mention of Doctor Who. Be proud of me.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


End file.
